There is a quick and simple way to tell how liberal a college or university is. Just count the number of people with dyed hair. If you visit a liberal college like the University of California at Berkeley, you can see the entire color spectrum on people's hair. At conservative schools, you won't find many people with strange hair colors.One of the first things I noticed at Dartmouth was the lack of people with dyed hair. I'm not talking about women who dye or highlight their hair every week or so. I'm talking about people with unnatural hair colors, such as purple, blue or green.
I am not sure what motivated me to dye my hair. With two psychology courses under my belt, I tried to figure out why I wanted to dye my hair. Was it because I once had a crush on a girl with purple and orange hair who owned a Harley? Maybe I wanted to rebel against the establishment in a subtle way. Perhaps I needed attention and tried to get people to notice me.
You don't have many opportunities to dye your hair. Imagine coming into work or a job interview with purple hair. Needless to say, you wouldn't be well-received. Of course there is the mid-life crisis, but I wouldn't want to be in my 40s and have purple hair. And dying my hair when I retire is certainly out of question. Everybody will probably think I've gone senile. College is the perfect place to do it. No parents, no real job and very little responsibilities other than school work.
Dying your hair is a risky process. I knew a guy who ended up with platinum blonde hair. Another friend who decided to dye her hair green somehow managed to dye half her face and neck green as well. So I decided to pay extra and get it done professionally.
Most Asians dye their hair blonde but I always thought that looked bad, so I decided to dye my hair red. Blue seemed a bit radical, and purple seemed a bit feminine. I didn't want to look like a clown, so I chose copper red.
First I needed to make an appointment for them to look at my hair and for me to pick the colors. I found out that my black hair has red and blue undertones, and I chose a reddish color from their huge binder. It was a weird process, picking out hair colors from a huge binder. So then I made my appointment.
I don't think I have ever spent so much money on my hair. I felt a bit guilty blowing off so much money on pure vanity's sake, but I felt comfort in knowing that this is a one-time thing. In three hours, my hair color changed from black to blue to blonde and finally to red.
For hours, my hair was covered with bluish chlorine paste. I thought I looked pretty good with blue hair. I asked them what would happen if they didn't wash off the chlorine goo at the right time. They said that my hair would fall out, and I would be bald. I panicked a little, but they assured me that they knew what they were doing.
During my transformation, I attracted a bit of crowd who looked at me in curiosity. I guess I was a bit of a funny sight with blue goo on my hair. I couldn't help but grin as I looked in the mirror. After a while, they washed it off and, to my surprise, my hair was completely blonde and bleached. I looked like a beach bum, and I shrieked. They told me it was a temporary condition and managed to calm me down.
Finally, they added the red dye and after a while, they washed my hair, and I indeed had red hair. It was the strangest thing in the world, looking at myself. I hardly recognized myself and began to laugh uncontrollably.
For three months I had red hair. People would tell me it didn't look quite red, and my hair color seemed to change under different lighting. It looked brown at times, orange under rare circumstances, but mostly red. People would kind of feel my hair and give me strange looks. After a while, I grew accustomed to having red hair and hardly paid any attention.
When it was time for me to go home for break, I knew I couldn't appear with red hair so I bought black dye from a pharmacy and dyed my hair back to black in the shower. My bus left at 8 a.m. and at 6 a.m., I was vigorously applying black dye. Then I emerged back in black hair and began to worry. It looked so artificial that I knew my parents would immediately notice. Having little time to shave my head or do something else, I went home.
Surprisingly, they never noticed, and for a while, I felt strange looking at myself with black hair, this hair color that I lived with for more than 19 years.
Even now, I have a few reddish streaks in my hair. I contemplate whether to dye my hair again. I think I've inspired few of my friends to change their hair colors as well. Next time, I'll go with blue.
