Green hair does care

I have had green hair since March fifteenth.  That’s right.  Two days before St. Patrick’s Day I willing bleached my hair at the salon and my amazing stylist, Katie Hartig, helped me achieve straight green locks.  I was beyond excited for my green hair debut.  Of course I’m always excited when I go into the salon and know I’m coming out with a new look entirely.  This was not because I hated having blue hair.  I actually loved having blue hair.  I remember initially when I made my decision to dye my hair blue I felt sad.  For some reason I felt more uplifted when my hair was blue than I ever have in life.  I cannot explain why,

but then again that is for another post on another day.

When I dyed my hair green, I knew people would be shocked but I guess I didn’t realize how much that would be the case.  I made my post on Facebook of course, and the first people who really got to see my hair in all it’s glory was my book club.  We were celebrating one of our members birthdays and it was great.  I even made my Pina colada green.  Life was good with my green hair.  I even realized that if I keep it up I will eventually be able to portray all the emotions from Inside Out just by changing my hair color once a year.  Two conventions that’s all or something.  Though this year I will go to three with green hair, but I digress.

Since dying my hair green I have dealt with lots of opinions.  Little kids have by far been my favorite.  I had a friend’s daughter who seemed semi shocked initially by my hair was green, but moved on rather quickly.  Another child asked his grandmother if my hair were naturally green.  She apologized for him pointing when we walked in.  I knew the color had made him tilt his head and that did not bother me in the least. He was inquisitive and I understood that. The best question a child asked me though is if I had used food coloring to dye my hair.  My initial color definitely could have passed for such.  I will admit that it is the brightest and lightest my hair has ever been and I enjoyed it a lot.  But kid reactions are always my favorite because they’re often times funny instead of negative.  They are genuinely curious about the woman with green hair.  

Along with the typical good, came the bad and annoying.  However, until I went green most of those comments were not voiced to my face. The lovely thing about the world today is that everyone shares their opinions, even the rather negative ones.  A good friend told me I would never find another job with weird hair, after saying I wish that as a society would accept unnatural hair coloring in the work place, more on why they should on a later day. That one hurt more than I care to admit for whatever reason, but I think it was mostly because I already felt as if I were not worth more than ten dollars an hour.  Another woman in the building I used to work literally came in to ask me if I did that to my hair permanently and I could tell she was giving me her best bless your heart I’m an older Southern woman and that is not proper reactions. Someone also asked if I just had some left over hair dye from St. Patrick’s Day going on and it would wash out soon.

All-in-all, I remembered that line from The Dark Knight where The Joker is talking to Harvey Dent in the hospital about chaos and how if you go one way people are fine and if you go another they lose their damn minds. Green has had made people lose their damn minds. At least that is how I feel between the noticeable disapproval looks when I smile at people at a local favorite restaurant of mine and I used to get smiles back. And oddly enough I know people who refused to like my post on Facebook because they legit hated my choice of color. One of my best friends even told me she didn’t know how she felt about my color so she didn’t like it.  I’m more accepting of her answer, but all of it accumulating added up and left me telling her what I plan on sharing here.

Until someone is paying for me to go to my hair stylist and pay for my hair they can have all the opinions they want, but it doesn’t mean I’m changing my hair for them.  My hair is for me.  I pointed this out because with all the negativity I debated for the first time if I had made the right decision with my hair.  And then after a mini pity party I thought EEF THAT AND EEF THEM.  And I especially feel this way to the person who told my friend’s co-worker that dyed her hair a dark green you can only notice if the light hits it right she was too old for crazy colors. I think you’re panties twisted too far up your twat and you need to pull them out.  Rude?  Yeah.  So was your comment to my friend’s co-worker mystery woman. 

With the lighter green hair, I have dealt with some facial expressions though that left me tilting my head.  On my last Instagram post where I admitted I was going to dye my hair a darker green, someone told me to dye my hair blue.  This had me legit yelling out loud REALLY, because of all the other remarks I have had to listen to.  Plus I had blue hair for a year already.  My goal is to stick with the color for a year so I know ultimately what I really love.  So far that is all of them, but I definitely have emotions attached to each color now and Hulk-like rage was the earlier part of my green days.  

Now that my hair is a darker green I have had SO many positive reactions.  I get stopped at least once every time I run an errand or go out in general and receive a compliment. However, my favorite will be when my green hair was lighter and a little old man came up to my the table my friend and I were sitting at while having lunch one afternoon.  He said my hair was like springtime and he absolutely thought it was beautiful and had to share that with me.  I’m grateful for him.  He made me feel vindicated in my hair choice. I also appreciated one of the ticket takers at the theater who told me I had Joker green hair.  His words didn’t register with me at first so I’m positive he felt he offended me with such a remark and comparison, but he did not understand my love for DC comics is deep and real.

I understand the remarks, but ultimately no one should tell you what you can or cannot do to your hair.  Nor should they make you feel bad for making that decision in the first place.  I should not have to debate on whether or not to wear a wig to a funeral either for the record because I worry what others will think.  For the record I sat in the extended family area, bright green hair and in need of a root touch up, and walked with my head held high as we stood and exited the chapel.  I also should not have to debate to buy a wig for future events either.  You like me or you do not.  I just hope that ultimately you do not let my hair make that decision for you and if so that is your lose not mine.