I was always the girl who told herself that she would never dye her hair. I was blessed with a pretty unique hair color: dirty strawberry brown with some lighter highlights. People often thought that I dyed my hair due to the various shades, but hairdressers always cautioned me against doing so. “You have such a beautiful hair color. Don’t ruin it!” And for a while, I agreed with them.
After coming to college, this mindset of mine changed. One of my best friends had seen a trend on TikTok where you dye a thin strand of the underlayer of your hair a vibrant color. After having a week filled with mental breakdowns, we went to our local drugstore and picked a bold shade of blue.
My friends and I dyed our hair ourselves and I didn’t have any regrets during the process. It was a fun Thursday night activity filled with music, laughs and “oh my god, are we actually doing this?!” If anything I figured, no one would ever really see it unless I brought my long hair over my shoulders. However, upon waking up the next morning, I discovered that the strand of hair that should have been dyed blue appeared as a weird black-gray color.
At first I thought I could just ignore the ugly color, but the more I sat with it that morning, the more I realized I wouldn’t be able to wait until it growed out. I called a salon that was conveniently located near my dorm building, and luckily they had an available appointment. After bleaching the strand for hours, the hair stylist stripped the ugly black color from my hair and applied the most vibrant electric blue shade I had ever seen. I loved the blue in my hair but as it started to fade—I really thought that this would be the last time I’d ever dye my hair. I didn’t like waking up everyday and seeing a faded shade of blue in my otherwise auburn ponytail.
However, seeing various TikTok videos of girls with the entire underlayer of their hair dyed made me itch to dye my hair again. Not only that, but after being forced into self-isolation once I came in contact with a friend who tested positive for COVID-19, I was bored and wanted to make a change. Life is too short to not take chances and make changes, especially if those changes have minimal consequences.
So there I was again, in the same salon chair I had found myself in months prior. The experience was much more nerve-wracking because this time I wasn’t trying to cover up an impulsive mistake—I was making a drastic change to alter the color of my hair that I already liked. But the results were amazing.
The underlayer of my hair is now the most beautiful lilac shade, and I couldn’t be more happy with it. There’s no doubt that it was a bold decision, but I have learned that life is too short to not take risks, especially when those risks can lead to an increase in confidence.