What’s with the blue hair?

October 9, 2018 • 10:30 am

This is just a question to dispel my ignorance. A lot of the kids, and some adults, are dyeing their hair fluorescent colors like blue, red, and green. I’ve seen it on both men and women.

Now I think it’s ugly, but that’s their choice, and I’m not going to hair-shame. Often the dyed-hair crowd comprises social-justice warriors, like the famous “Big Red” below, but I’m not sure that’s always true. My question is this.

What’s with the colored hair? Is it to show adherence to a particular ideology, or are there other reasons?

 

163 thoughts on “What’s with the blue hair?”

  1. I think it’s a hipster phenomena. I find there is an overlap of hipster and SJW when it comes to fashion trends and attitudes. They all seem to have a tribal snooty “too cool for school” outlook and I think the hair style is just a reflection of the same. I remember recently hearing middle aged women being criticized for joining the trend which only seems to support my theory that it’s trendy and exclusive.

    1. Age-shaming in the world of hair-dying trends seems ironic to me. Weren’t octegenarians the original “blue hairs”?

      1. Yeah, well being a middle aged woman gets a lot of “thou shalt nots” including “wearing mini skirts” and putting on make up a certain way. It’s a way of kicking you out of “youth crowd”.

          1. ALL guys should leave their Speedos at home. And this coming from a former competitive swimmer

        2. ‘Twas ever thus. The arrogance of youth must assert itself, including by excluding old folk — it’s a biological imperative, like salmon swimming upstream to spawn.

          As Marlon Brando said in The Wild One when asked what he was rebelling against, “What have you got?”

    2. Interesting, but I might disagree. From what I can tell (and that is very limited) it just seems to mostly be playful self-expression. Perhaps the remark about a middle-aged woman doing so is because it isn’t seen as a very “grown-up” or “professional” look. Perhaps if the trend continues that attitude could change. I’m not bothered by it (yet?) and I think it’s kind of fun.

    3. Yeah. It’s a “youth culture” thing just like tattoos and facial piercing. At one time all of these were looked down on as kind of seedy belonging to a certain type of undesirable. Now of course it’s everywhere. I think it’s an identity signal showing that “Hey, I’m cool too just like you.” wink wink nudge nudge.
      On older people it looks just silly to me.

  2. It’s just fun as far as I know

    I am 57 and have hot pink hair, or bright purple, or even really bright blue

    My daughter always has her hair colored, a few times like the pic in this post, but usually purple, or an ombre effect

    Back when I was younger I colored my hair to be red/auburn because no one takes a blond seriously, especially back then

    So, old joke for you.
    What do you call a blond who dyes her hair red? Artificial intelligence har har har

    Anyway we don’t do it for any reason other than to have fun

    1. Ditto. Hair is a renewable accessory, like nails. Some people also iron their hair, perm it or use hair gel for a spiky look. It’s like changing your clothes.

    2. My son, who turned 21 last Sunday, showed up to the restaurant with bright pink hair. He is, like me, a natural redhead, and also like me struggled with all the attention (much of it negative, though often just embarrassing) the hair color brought as a child. What I find curious is that unlike me, he chose to draw MORE attention to his hair, but then again, now that he’s 6’7” and all muscles, he probably gets the positive attention from people he wants, whereas I only got the old ladies (the blue hairs, as we called them) who for as long as I can remember have fawned over me and said embarrassing things (for a 5 yr old especially) like “oh I just love your hair, would you trade with me?”

  3. I think a common opinion is that they do it to rebel or come across as non-conformists. I think it is more simple than that for most people. They do it because:

    1) they think it looks good (eye of the beholder and all of that)
    2) they like to change their appearance from time to time
    3) they feel that it better reflects their personality

    1. Maybe many just do it for fun. As a 61 year old male, whose hair is thinning fast, all I can say is: Go for it!! If you’re male, it’s likely that in you future there won’t be enought hair left to do crazy stuff with it.

      1. I like it – oh, I apologize – I mean :

        [ thumb up on hand extending from cufflinked formal wear]

  4. Could be they’re saying “I’m different, I’m special, I’m rebelling.” Personally I’m OK with hair of any color. It’s nose rings that I don’t think I’ll ever like.

    2. I don’t like nose rings (septum piercing), but I find nostril piercings attractive. I really dislike the look when people make huge holes in their earlobes. Just looks incredibly ugly to me. But what’s worse than that imo are facial tattoos. I just don’t get facial tattoos.

      1. Often people regret those huge earlobe holes and need plastic surgery to fix them.

        1. Not surprising.

          I often wonder about young people with excessive “ink”. How many regret it once they are much older. Especially people with facial tattoos. At the same time, maybe tats are easier to get rid of then I think.

          2. That’s definitely the cheap way!

            I was actually curious earlier and looked up “removing facial tattoos”. Per googly, companies out there remove w/ lasers for $200-500 per session. It takes 2-5 sessions depending on how many tattoos. More expensive than getting the tattoos in the first place.

          3. Yep, my ladyfriend removes tattoos and does other laser-based skin treatments. Tattoo removal ain’t cheap, or painless. She removes gang-related facial tattoos pro bono.

            There’s no regulation on what can be used as an ink, either. Prison tattoos often use cigarette ash. Some inks, as you might imagine, are easier to remove than others.

            Amuses me to see people in the local food co-op, tatted to the hilt, with loads of organic, non-GMO stuff at checkout.

          4. My fear is an immune reaction to the ink. Knowing my body it would do just that too & then you’re just screwed.

            I thought of getting something to cover my scar near my armpit from the sentinel node biopsy scar but that biopsy cut my nerves & it really hurts there plus I don’t want crap going into my remaining lymph nodes & even though I didn’t get them all out so unlikely I’ll get lymphodema, I still have issues there so don’t need to ask for trouble.

            So I wonder how many people really botch things up. You don’t hear of it so much.

          5. I don’t know where this will show up, but it’s a reply to Diana.

            It turns out that the immune system is responsible for the ink staying where it does, something that I think has only recently been understood. Otherwise it would diffuse away and be cleared in one way or another. Here’s a bit that NPR did on it recently

            None of this intended by any stretch to encourage you to get tatted. Plus there is apparently ZERO regulation or standardization in tattoo inks, and that is part of what makes their removal so difficult. Different inks, which of course have different molecular structures, respond differently to the laser energy, or to put it the way my ladyfriend explains to clients, “Some inks are easier to remove than others.”

  5. While dyed hair may be disproportionately set to a more leftist inclination, I would guess that could be explained by originality and independence prompting creative expression (as opposed to “conservative” – in a traditional definition).

    I haven’t seen any evidence that directly ties it to anything. As of right now I see it more as playful self-expression.

      1. Agreed. I find it a pity that especially young people, who usually have such healthy shiny hair, dull it with dye. I find Asians with orange and yellow hair especially ridiculous, but à chacun son goût. I’ve never dyed my hair; was blonde (but not dumb🤓) for years, then darkened a bit, now somewhat lighter again with a few grey streaks. I’m lucky to have much less grey than my three younger brothers. Who knows why? I think that people usually look best with the hair they’re born with. As lovely as Michele Obama is, I wish she’d let her hair go “natural” (not that she asked me).

    1. Yeah, that moniker coulda come right outta a Pynchon novel, like Oedipa Maas or Rachel Owlglass.

  7. It’s a style thing with some rebellion mixed in. It’s been going on for years, waxing and waning. Mostly young people, but I know a couple in their 80’s who color their white hair blue and yellow and pink. Rainbow hair.

    1. Most all of the seniors at my local Senior Center dye their hair some color. And a third of them have streaks of bright colors. Certainly is as valid 9and natural looking) as dying your hair jet back once you’ve turned all white.

    2. Back in the 70’s I wore my hair long and beard and moustache untrimmed. The loon pants were pink though.

  9. AFAIK it’s just for fun/fashion. My daughter did it, and she’s no SJW/hipster. Very common out here now in So. Cal.

    Pointless chess reference: Board 3 for the US Women’s Olympic Chess Team, Tatev Abrahamyan, has purple hair.

    1. So did some woman scientist who was featured here, last year I think. She had to be in her 50s at least, and the purple? pink? stripes looked great on her spiky hairdo.

          1. You’re going to trigger Jerry by saying that someone “rocked” something. 😀

  10. Red or blue hair seems a mild form of Crediblility Enhancing Displays :

    In performing these displays, our commitment is perceived as more genuine, which enhances our credibility within as well as outside the group, increasing the cohesiveness of the group and the likelihood of others joining as a result of that degree of cohesion. These can range from fire-walking, to crucifixion, to self-castration, to vows of celibacy, silence, and/or poverty, to food restrictions, to dress and grooming standards, and on and on and on.

    from “https://danielomcclellan.wordpress.com/tag/credibility-enhancing-displays/”

    2. Yeah, commitment is why biker gangs wear the 1% patch — to separate themselves from the weekend warriors.

      1. I’m a long time, nearly every day rider, and I’ve never been able to decide which group is really the posers. The self-identified 1% or the rest of us?

          1. Definitely. It’s what social creatures do best. It might be what all the extra cognitive power is for.

    4. And then there’s “hipster glasses”…glasses with frames only, no lenses. Fashion trends are strange.

      1. As someone with severe myopia, I find someone wearing eyewear without lenses really annoying. Perhaps it will also become trendy to walk around wearing a cast.

        1. Me too! I knew someone who used to wear non-Rx glasses and it drove me crazy. It was during the 80’s “preppy” fad. He was also banking on “women like smart guys”…what a poser.

          The cast wearing fad would be creepy; it reminds me of the tactic Ted Bundy used to lure women.

          1. Ewww yeah. Bundy & Silence of the Lambs is why I’m not nice to strangers, making me a bad Canadian.

          3. You say that now but wait until you approach me in a cast and I kick your cane out from under you and scream “not today perv!” 🤣

  13. I did have my pony tail dyed red and blue, mainly to annoy people who didn’t like men with pony tails (not hipster, lazy person who can’t be bothered to get it cut!).

    I did have the whole lot dyed bright cerise in 2003, but that was to raise a few grand for Breast Cancer UK’s ‘Wear it Pink’ appeal.

    These days it is the natural platinum blonde of advanced years, grey to you 🙂

        1. I forgot to say: My wife and her brother started to go grey in their teens (that’s genetics for you, their mother was completely white haired by around 39 to 40) and my wife was pretty much fully grey by her early 30’s. They regularly ribbed each other about being grey and her brother’s stock response was “But on me it looks distinguished”. Now we are all in our 60’s it really makes no odds, though I would prefer mine to be white all over rather than the hold outs of pigment that I still have.

          Maybe it is time for another all over dye job… perhaps green this time, never had that!

    2. Yeah, I was going to say, pink tips are almost mainstream among middle aged working women where I live due to the breast cancer awareness projects / fundraisers that incorporate them. I think after people do it for a cause it doesn’t feel unusual and then they just dye their hair for fun.

      Also, I think part of it is a matter of sheer efficacy. I remember in college, if you wanted to dye your hair an unusual color, you had to bleach it within inches of its life (and often people missed this fine line and it just fell out,) and then apply some Manic Panic that looked bright for a day and then like grey lizard hair that faded out in uneven spots after that. With upgrades in hair color, I think it may be the “Why? Because now we can.” effect.

  14. My kids were doing this twenty years ago so there’s nothing new about it. Meaning? “I’m just so rebel, like everyone else!”

    1. I dyed my hair several colors one hot summer day. Used food colors, which ran down my face as I sweated. Everybody laffed at me.

      Why did I do this? Cause I wanted to look cool like Todd Rudgren did on his album cover.

      BTW, that was the Bicentennial summer, exactly FORTY TWO years ago !!!

      1. On that July 4, 1976 day I was at a barbecue at the remote USAF communications site Langerkopf, near the town of Johanniskreuz. I was the the first person to successfully climb a greased flag pole and remove the dollar bills that were taped around the perimeter of a garbage can lid that was attached to the top of it.

  15. It’s just a fashion trend. It started in the late 70s in punk counterculture, now it’s mainstream. It is not rebellious at all, at this point.

    2. back when I was a kid some of the teen girls would wear roach clips with brightly colored feathers in their hair. of course this was to attract indians with snack foods (sexual selection). now that the peacocks are extinct they have no other choice.

    3. Yep — I still remember when punk finally arrived in the little backwater (Tasmania) I grew up in, in 1979. A friend of mine walked into class fifteen minutes late one day with a buzzcut and one half of his hair dyed green. Everyone was speechless. Nowadays no one would think twice.

    4. Todd Rundgren was dyeing his hair pink and green by the time of ’73s “A Wizard, a True Star”.

  16. Not everything has to be ideologically focused. I’ve had red and blue and purple hair at points of my life. It’s common in scenes of people who are into rock music. It’s just a fun thing to do.

  18. Although I think most people dye their hair for fun or to be a bit different it does seem to me there’s a fairly strong correlation between left leaning political views and dying. I wonder if it also correlates with a certain personal type – a sort of eccentric anti-establishment. I’ve always been a bit envious of people who think nothing of dying their hair green because it also suggests to me a person who is utterly unconcerned with the opinions of others.

  19. It’s edgy

    Hip

    Different

    Not like old people (but only kind-of)

    Looks cool – beauty is different and not the goal here.

    Uniformity of color.

    Perhaps only for certain hair types – e.g. straight brown.

    I think that’s it. The only identity going on here is youth. I know there are exceptions.

  20. I just saw brilliant red hair in the local village store. Female. Chaque a son gout but in an effort to be different, they merely join the crowd. Oh, well, there are worse things…

    1. It’s classified under “Get off my lawn” so perhaps he saw it is superfluous…

      1. Rats. In that case I should classify my comment under “Pay more attention”. Is it too late to change my suggestion to “Take a bath, Hippy!”?

  22. I think its a way to be edgy that in a safe way that you can choose to change tomorrow unlike tattoos or piercings. IMO, it’s a smarter decision.

  23. FWIW, my favourite TV scientist, the estimable Professor Alice Roberts, regularly sports bright red hair, and has done since her first appearances on Time Team many years ago.

  25. The correlation seems too strong to be dismissed as chance.

    I suspect that it had no deep meaning when it started, but people have noticed and emulated their tribe so today its a reliable signal.

    1. The practise of henna hair colouring in the West has nowt to do specifically with Muslim males dying their beards. The various 60s countercultural movements had a large dose of eastern mysticism mixed in & the awareness of the East grew exponentially when the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was endorsed by the Beatles – that was what caused the Yogi’s big American break. There was already a lot of elements already in place scattered here & there such as the use of Sitar in rock/psychedelia, little pockets of TM & Yoga, the hippy beads thing, mandela dream catchers, etc etc.

      Anyway ALL the religions/peoples of the Indian subcontinent used Henna for various life events & ceremonies – on their skin & on their hair – and not just women. I think therefore that ‘Eastern Mysticism’ is the likeliest ingredient that grew the acceptance in the West of ‘alternative’ lifestyles & the tribal identity uniforms that engendered.

  28. Not much of an opinion one way or another on this, but there are times when I see instance that remind me of Alex’s mum in A Clockwork Orange. That’s a bit disconcerting.

  29. My niece colors her hair light purple. I think it is only because cool kids do it and it is considered self-expression. My feeling is that if being cool is really that easy then it is not worth much. Artists who show how gutsy they are by painting nude self-portraits strike me in a similar way.

  30. Could it be a Zahavian handicap, professor ceiling cat? If you look at many of the youth trends, the possibility arises that the sginal being sent is “I can dress like an utter clown and still look beautiful–because of my youth”. Whereas, if, me (say) at my ripe age, tried to walk around with my hat on backwards, trousers around my knees like a toddler with a filled nappy etc I would be (quite rightly) heckled and mocked.
    And another thing–the music in my day had proper tunes…we respected our elders, and Oi, get off my lawn!

  33. As a follically challenged American any stupid hairstyle pisses me off. It’s ableism and it sends me to my safe space every time.

  34. The pink/purple/green hair and SJW clichés are correlated for a simple reason: they both mean membership in the “cool”, independent
    herd.

  35. I think, broadly speaking, these things tend to go through three phases: a few subversive rebels adopt it; then it spreads to the vanguard; and then it’s carried outward from there until it’s co-opted into a mass cultural phenomenon. “Recuperation” is the theoretical term for it, at least as used by the Situationist International in the Sixties.

    1. This is true. Stages.

      Same as I can tell for tattoos. At first subversion and rebellion, vanguard and celebrities, then everyone including grandma has one.

      Some people look better with colored hair, but most do not. Same goes for tattoos. Alternatively, those with colored hair and tattoos would look good anyway.

  36. Just a new way to stand out, like every generation has tried to do in the last 100 years.

    Remember when long hair like the Beatles had was frowned upon?

  37. As I said in the thread about Sarah Jeong, this is aposematism. A mutation to ward off sane people!

  38. For the most part (and I just say that because I don’t know what’s in other people’s minds) it’s just a harmless act of nonconformity. It’s reversible and sometimes it’s pretty, so what’s the big deal?

  39. Sample bias.

    The media is going to pick the most striking people to interview–the rudest, the angriest, the best-looking, the zaniest, the weirdest. Those outside the norm, in other words. That’s what gets people’s attention, and that’s what sells ads on your channel. So any media representation of any group, unless it is specifically intended to be a cross-section of the group, can be assumed to be looking at extremes. Extreme fashion choices (not that hair dye is THAT extreme, just that it’s striking) are going to attract attention.

  40. I’ve been trying to convince my wife to get some blue accents in her hair. So far no luck. I’ve seen many such color styles that I thought were quite beautiful. It seems I’m partial to the blues and purples.

  41. The idea is to show that you’re a unique, outside the box individual not constrained by conventions. Turns out that there are huge numbers of such people. Tattoos work the same way.

  43. Because it’s fun. You might have grown an SJW association with it because there’s probably some overlap between places of work that tolerate, allow, or encourage people to dye their hair in silly colors and places of work that support, encourage, and/or attract SJWs. Less formal, more liberal places and crowds. Maybe I’m old but I associate it more with punk rock fans and bands. A little bit playful, a little bit rebellion, a little bit attention seeking, but mostly just to have fun in a way that’s harmless and a bit out of social norms. Like wacky facial piercings.

    1. I think it’s pretty mainstream now. There aren’t too many places that would tell you that you couldn’t colour your hair and you see EMS and police with tattoo sleeves these days. Piercings are probably only frowned upon for safety reasons.

  44. The beginning of the school/college year usually displays a shift in cultural advertisement; the hair color that definitely is the IN color this fall is not red but a blue purple color?

  45. It’s just plain fun. I colored my hair for fun back in high school in the 1980s. I haven’t colored my hair since then.

    More recently, since my military service, I like to get a high fade for easy maintenance, which unfortunately, has become associated with anti-justice warriors/”dapper Nazis” like Richard Spencer and his ilk.

    Calling that haircut the “Hippler” has me laughing though.

    https://www.laweekly.com/arts/the-alt-right-vs-la-hipsters-who-gets-custody-of-the-hippler-haircut-7933939

    1. There’s a guy in my office with that style, I’m just off to call him “Hippler” now

      Thank you

  46. Where I live (Cologne, Germany, in the super-hip Belgian quarter) all the young men have perfectly groomed beards and stand around wearing a suitably earnest expression. When I was their age, thirty years ago, I had a kind of unkempt afro and a big unkempt Karl Marx-style beard. I guess it all looked kinda atrocious.

    2. “super-hip Belgian”

      Is that some kind of oxymoron? (I kid, my Belgian friends, I kid! 🙂 )

  47. Pursue it further and another thing you’ll find, Not only are they deaf and dumb they could be going blind and no one notices

    I think I’ll dye my hair blue

  48. I asked my (British) 16-year-old daughter about whether this trend had any political / social significance. I got an eye roll and the reply, “It’s just a 2018 thing, Dad”. Though personally, I’ve noticed it for longer than that, but then what do I know…

  49. It was Oscar Wilde who said fashion is a form of ugliness so unbearable we have to alter it every six months.

    Today he might agree that it takes a longer time to alter truly bad fashions. And afterward they tend to return in a few decades.

    Case in point: Dyed hair was in fashion two decades ago, and is now trendy again. When it comes to fashion, humanity is like a dog returning to its vomit.

    Still, dyed hair is better than piercings and tattoos. The craze for the latter has gone overboard in the past few years. I shudder at all the oldsters with hideously inked wrinkled flesh that will be walking around five decades from now.

    2. I remember teasing a tattooed friend in the early ’90s about an article in The Guardian with the headline “Tattoos: A barcode for criminals” which reported on the correlation between tattoos and criminality. Times have changed, and now tattoos have become so normalized I sometimes feel I’m the odd one out.

      1. Speaking of tattoos and criminality, one of the many ways criminals often get caught is by tattoo identification.

        “I don’t remember his face, but there was this scorpion tattoo on his right forearm…”

        Plus catching a criminal’s tats on video camera.

        My advice: if you want to live a life of crime, do NOT get any tattoos.

  50. I don’t think it means anything. If some people do dye their hair to belong to some kind of ideology, they’re not conveying much to the rest of us. It’s not the equivalent of wearing a specific headgear to show your devotion to your particular deity.

    The opposite could be true, though: that young people who do *not* dye their hair (or shave their heads or have tattoos) may be more satisfied with the status-quo in general, or perhaps just not very creative.

  51. p.s. also, this trend is popular in Asia and a lot of American young’uns are fans of Asian culture. Do a google image search for “Harajuku style” to see what may come next!

  52. It started in post-punk Goth counterculture I think. In early to mid 80s there were “misfits” in my high school who dyed their hair. They were ahead of their time musically (The Cure, Smiths, etc). I’m drawing on South Park episodes but there have possible been fractures into Vamps and Emos. Emos have a certain type of music preference and hair color variation.

    Now it’s mainstream. I’ve noticed grey hair is a thing amongst the youths. Mine is naturally going that way.

      1. Well I can think of one well respected scholar who has no qualms about dying her hair to look like a rainbow:

        https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Susan_Blackmore_%282014%29.jpg/1228px-Susan_Blackmore_%282014%29.jpg

        Or she could be wearing noncommital extensions. Nonetheless no judgement.

        Hair color, piercings and tats are nothing I concern myself with. Well I do kinda judge people with face and neck tats. That seems extreme and hard to reverse later in life. Face tats seem a really bad idea. Everything else as self expression is not a big deal.

    1. What?

      So you think those of us with colored hair are looking to hook up and bump uglies?

      I promise you that you have no idea what you are talking about, we color our hair for ourselves, not you or any other reason, just to please ourselves.

      Unless I TELL you that I want to have sex with you there is no reason to think I am sending a “signal” with my hair color

      That you think this way frightens me.

      1. Good grief! For at least several years now, I’ve known friends who food-colorize their dogs AND horses for special occasions- parades, contests, holidays, etc. It’s quite common and not much worthy of notice.

      2. Please do not make assumptions about me. Because a peacock fans its plume does not mean I think it should be raped. That you jump to such a conclusion is frightening to me.

  54. Observing my daughter’s high school, I conclude it’s just what the kids are doing today. I see no pattern that it’s any particular kind of kid or goes with any statement. Buzz hair is more likely to be a statement, from my limited observation.

    I like it in a lot of cases. In some cases the colors interact with natural hair color in bad ways, though. I’ve seen a green color on brown that seems to come out bad more often than not, and I wonder if they intended that brown/green mixture or if they were aiming for actual green and missed. But, as the kids say, whatevs.

  55. A student at college with me in the 1980’s tried to treat his head with henna (to give a reddish tint to his brown hair and strengthen the the hair).
    After a while, he decided he wanted to get the colour out and try something else, so he bleached it with peroxide. This remove the natural pigment but not the henna, leaving his hair bright pink, which I thought was hysterical.

    This serves to show that not all pink hair you see is actually deliberate.

  56. There are differing reasons for why humans alter their appearances. At one time it was a non-conformist attitude but these days it is more about fashion or simply having fun. In my sphere women from 12-50 have colored hair of some type. And, being an artist, I kind of like seeing some color. In my demographic and city that is seen as something to celebrate. There’s a cashier at the Whole Foods downtown sporting a 12 inch rainbow-colored mohawk and he’s always a hoot to talk to. He’s very much in love with life, perhaps moreso than am I.

  58. I’m surprised at how many responses PCC(E) got from this question. This was a fun thread to read.

  59. My daughter dyed her hair raspberry when she was a senior in high school and taking college classes. At six feet tall she stands out, but with the hair pink she really stood out. There were no political statements involved and it was 2002. She was just young and always liked to be at least one step ahead on being cool. She now has some kind of public relations job in Canada.

  60. IMO every generation seeks to differentiate themselves from the one before; to strike out on their own, symbolically if not literally leave their parents.

    In the 60s-70s it was rebellious hairstyles (e.g. long hair for men).
    In the 80s-90s it was tattoos.
    In the 90s-00s it was body piercing.
    Colored hair might be the 10s. Who knows.

    If it’s any consolation, Jerry, take heart that the kids of this young generation will, in turn, find their own way to provoke a “but why do that? I don’t understand…” response from their parents.

    1. It may be signaling a recognition that this is a cheap, reversible way of identity, same as beards etc. If you don’t like it, it grows out at zero cost vs. tattoos.

      I wonder a lot more about someone tatted or pierced to the hilt than with green hair.

      1. Maintaining dyed hair is the real commitment and it can be costly. Because I’m lazy and cheap about hair, I don’t dye mine but I’ve been lucky in having relatively few gray hairs for my age.

        1. There are various colors available as hair extensions that can be attached and combed in. Personal story…I had a dyed rat tail for a brief time in early 80s. Dad hit ceiling and that didn’t last long. So much for the earring idea too. And mom always shot down the BB gun idea. Grrr!!! In retrospect they were probably right about motorcycles.

  61. Good grief! For at least several years now, I’ve known friends who food-colorize their dogs AND horses for special occasions- parades, contests, holidays, etc. It’s quite common and not much worthy of notice.

  62. I love & respect PCC[E] so it is with some trepidation that I question the syntax of that question –
    “What’s with…”

    Would it not be better to say –
    “What is the problem/issue with…” or better still –
    “Why do some people people dye…”

    😉

    Life’s a bleach & then you dye…

  63. The same question could be asked of those cowboy boots you have… Can’t the reason just be, “because I want to”?

  64. Youth and hipsterism? In-crowd coolness?

    Nah, when all is said and done it’s about getting attention.

    Vanity, one of the worst of human frailties. Personified, to a frightening and monstrous extent, by that awful, tangerine shit-stain that currently sits in The White House.

  65. Every generation establishes its’ own criteria for looking or being different from their elders while being the same as their “in” group. However, elders have taken up the
    non-hair-colored hair in large numbers now also. I, like some others here, are less appreciative of tats, piercings and much metal in ears, eyebrows, lips and tongues than hair coloration. I also find it less easy to appreciate shaved or partially shaved heads (sometimes with the remaining hair vibrantly colored.)

    In the long run, it’s not a lot different than religious groups that maintain a specific dress or hair standard like Muslims, Orthodox Jews, Mennonite, Amish, Mormons, Rastafarians, etc. We show our sameness by our difference from you.

  66. Is it really a hipster phenomena? I’m half way my thirties and Have wanted to dye my hair blue since I was a kid. I tried when I was 15, which resulted in having to cut my hair (that has never to date ever been as long as back then) short. Really short. I would still love to have blue hair once, but I nowadays work in a corporate world where it would shock the boss too much.

    Why would I like t have my hair blue for a while? I have no idea. Why do others want it blonde or dark or curly when their hairs are not? In my case it’s def not a hipster thing.

  67. I’m going to tell the truth!!! If you see a person with dyed hair like that , I guarantee you 💯 % they are a liberal, Democrat.

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