"Blue hair brigade"

OP, there’s a good analysis of the relationship between blue hair, social alienation and existential philosophy as presented in Blue Is The Warmest Colour, which came out in 2010, here: www.yourfilmprofessor.com/blue-is-the-warmest-color-exploring-the-intertexual-layers-of-meaning/

DD may find that interesting, but the film is an 18, so perhaps not suitable for her?

Even if you don’t want your hair to shout ‘existential nihilism’, blue hair is probably the most flattering of the unnatural hair colours. There’s a shade of blue to suit almost everyone, and it fades out nicely too. So it’s a good colour for anyone looking for a non-conformist statement or just a bit of fun. I know a very respectable middle aged professional who dyed her hair blue because she was bored.

So glad you brought this up OP as I’ve been wanting to ‘reclaim’ blue hair on MN for ages. It’s too good to abandon without a battle!

Aw, it's not the blue hair really. I've always rather enjoyed seeing people with silly hair colours and have been known to randomly compliment them in queues.

It's a certain category of young people who think they are different from any young people before. They are 'queer' and 'nonbinary', and as there are no 'nonbinary' stereotypes for girls to adopt they need a visual indicator of their great difference so do funny hair colour. It's easier for boys who can just be nonbinary by wearing a skirt, blue hair rarer among the boys in my experience, though some do if they actually want to be pretty stereotype conforming but still identify as special.

I actually quite fancy silly colour hair once I've gone properly white. I never did it when I was young as my natural hair colour is dark and I didn't fancy bleaching it. It would be more of a not taking self too seriously gesture than a aren't I special gesture.

It's a shorthand for young, (too?) socially progressive radical.

What it means varies a bit depending on who is deploying it, as @GalactatingGoddess notes.

My youngest daughter told me huffily that I'd been misinformed when I said her blue hair might be regarded by some people as a signal that she was a straight kid trying desperately to hitch a lift on the rainbow, but within a couple of days her hair was orange, which suits her much better. I'm sure in reality there's no correlation between making a feature of your hair and having particular views on gender ideology.

It is worth noting that amongst incel ideology the blue haired brigade also refers to feminists and non traditional women as an insult!

It's sad to see this overlap with GC!

As a personal, I have teal blue hair and it's:

• amazing and often compliment
• my lowest upkeep hair (blonde/pink/silver were bigger efforts!)
• suits my skin massively
• I am in no definite camp re 'lefties', conservative or GC. Hold overlapping views.

Whilst I get who it's a shorthand for, I'm not wildly keen on 'the blue hair brigade' as a dismissive term. It's not quite 'when they go low, we go high' from my perspective. I think it also perpetuates the unhelpful myth that this is simply a right/left old/young issue.

I know GC women with brightly dyed hair (including blue), and even more with a history of bright hair. I wouldn't automatically assume a blue-haired young woman was signalling her allegiance.

I’ve been colouring my hair on and off (usually pink, magenta or purple) since I was a teenager, back when I was a little punk/goth/mettalerI havent outgrown it and am fortunate to have enough holiday time to do it (Tbf my work is relaxed about hair dye i could keep it but prefer to mainly stay white/blonde)

Many young people go through it- some keep it up (looks at Zandra Rhodes) others (including the multi coloured allies) will stop as they get older.

I sometimes think the young forget we all had a youth too. And then it’ll happen to them as well. That’s how it works.

To directly answer your question: the stereotype is that all anyone has to change to say that they're non binary is their hair. Mostly they go for blue or green and bam, they're not male or female anymore.

Agree that it's associated with a certain "type" but ironically they rarely look good on it because they tend not to do the prep/upkeep required for deep/strong colours.

Those same colours take beautifully though on older hair that is grey/white.

Might be an idea worth exploring?

(Not for your DD - it's a lot of work if your hair still has natural colour.)

I had blue hair after I split up with a girlfriend and was going through a not quite at midlife crisis.

It wasn't trendy then and associated with wokeness and a homophobic ideology. Now it is. I'm now 45 and wouldn't mind blue hair again. Sadly they have ruined it for me.

I am extremely GC and have blue hair, I always have it a 'crazy colour'

Just another shitty stereotype against women, just like the whole Karen movement.

Just from a upkeep pov, blue hair is a nightmare. Need to bleach your hair to get the lift needed, very damaging and it fades to that horrible dishwater green very quickly.

I didn't find that at all, if anything the blue hair absolutely wouldn't fade. I ended up bleaching it 3 times to get the blue out (not my wisest moment) Looked amazing while it was blue though.

Seems to be about alienation. They’re showing they’re different from what’s gone before, trying to subvert norms. It‘s a bit silly as people have dyed their hair daft colours forever, but not harmful.

Blue rinse is about older women.

In British politics, the term Blue Rinse Brigade is used to refer to affluent older women involved in Conservative politics, charity work and committees.

Just blue hair now is a term for the loud social justice warrior type. You know, the one on the right side of history.

It's down more to personality and actions though so just the hair wouldn't be enough to get her "branded" unless it's at a very superficial (and frankly irrelevant) level.

Word of warning though, it's a proper pain to upkeep and get rid off and it always fades into a murky swamp green.

Bit strange that she doesn't want you to warn her of any negative stereotypes before she makes a change to her appearance. I'd wang to know of any messages I'd be sending out( i had a knitted rainbow bag and socks at school, had no idea they were pride colours. I just liked rainbows. Not a problem exactly, but i did get a lot of comments that I wasn't prepared for, if I'd have known I could have been better prepared for the snark.

Both those colours are high fade op, so I'd suggest trying a semi which won't be as dramatic, before she commits to the upkeep. Also get a specific colour shampoo and conditioner. Also she'll need to protect it over summer with a hat, hair SPF and rinsing properly if going in chlorinated pools.

It's the anime schoolgirl connection. The hair colours favoured by TRAs are those in the anime films they evidently adore and use as their avatars and feature in the 'shut the fuck up T*rf' gun-pointing anime schoolgirl memes.

I had blue hair back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Thank to quite shit dyes, I also had blue ears.

Haircolour/earcolour means very little, OP, it's what's between the ears that counts.

I have purple hair! I know no one cares

The blue hair brigade youth when I was growing up would have found their tribe as basically goth, emo, cyber-punk, raver, or other alternative subculture.

Signified by hair dye, but these subcultures provided a genuinely meaningful sense of identity to a possibly troubled teen.

These days, it's more trendy to obsess online over pronouns, LGBTQ status and "gender", than music subculture (where teens used to be able to find a home).

These days, those identifying as feminine dye their hair pink, and those identifying as masculine dye their hair blue.
That's how you know how your non-binary or trans teenager is identifying these days.

Funny to think my grans friend Agnes was dead edgy in her 80s!