What do you think of people with colourful hair? As in different colour hair - pinks, greens, blues, purples, - big bright colourful hair

[StonePaperScissors]

I always had my hair in a natural brown until last year and I started getting it bleached and highlighted to get some fun bright colours in my hair. I don't want to be known so I won't give my hair colours away but I did a new colour recently and I love it.

I get two reactions.

1. where people love it
2. they hate it but mabe they won't say it but their tone and attitude - I sense something.

For me I think there is too much madness in the world and I am not hurting anyone and I need more bright and cheerful in my life.

Some people probably think I am a clown or something. I don't know. I really love colourful hair.

It looks like the person is saying ‘look at me, I’m a bit wacky, I am!’

But people who say ‘we’re all a little KeRAZzy here’ and usually (imo) quite limited and conventional.

also, it’s usually extremely unflattering against a normal complexion.

i give people with bright dyed hair a wide berth.

I like it but as previously post if done nicely. Work with someone that has the botton bit pink and has it professionally done and looks great but someone else who does their whole head pink themselves and dont look great. I know it can be money though as i dye mine myself brown and know looks better at hairdressers but obviously so expensive now.

My company specifies that hair styles & colours must be conventional (can't remember the exact wording but it's very clear)

I would love to colour my hair red, or something more out there. I'm very grey under the brunette dye currently in use and would just like to have some fun.

Not ND or other in any way.
Just hate how women are expected to fade into the background as they age - that's not going to be me!

I don't think anyone is suggesting that people who dye their hair in various bright colours shouldn't be allowed to get one with their lives....but if you choose to present yourself in a certain way, you also should assume others will usually silently make a judgment on you. If I walk down the street suited and booted I assume others will view me differently than if I'm walking down the street in a scruffy tracksuit.

It's not at all comparable to ethnicity.

Wouldn't judge it at all, beyond thinking you are quite brave and probably quite extroverted. I don't associate it with political stances or neurodiversity.

I love to see brightly coloured hair and generally think that people are likely to be interesting, free thinking and fun. I definitely wouldn’t associate it with people with extreme gender or political views. I think people who have brightly coloured hair are confident in their appearance. I would never dye my hair a normal hair colour and am happy to go grey gracefully, but I would love to have bright purple or turquoise hair.

I wouldn't do it personally as I don't want to be known as the lady with the purple hair, I'd rather just be me. If someone else wants to do it though, that's their business.

Yes but I find people who are 'free thinking and fun' tend to be free thinking and fun in very similar ways.

Sadly there is no escaping the group for humans.

I don't like it for several reasons. 1) the hair often looks very unhealthy, probably from the harsh dyes. 2) the colour clashes with skin colour/eyes etc. 3) I work in a school so associate it with a teenage mindset and attention seeking. That's fine if you're actually a teenager, but I think in adults it's naff.

Also if it's paired with a nose ring or very visible tattoos then I would certainly think the person is trying to be alternative and edgy. I find those types of people tiring and I bet they find me boring, so doubt we'd have much to say to one another.

I honestly don’t think anything about it unless it looks particularly bad or good and even then it’s a passing thought unless the persons hair looks particularly amazing!

I look at Anna Wintour with a very conventional hairdo, looks amazing, and I certainly wouldn’t categorise her as fading into the background.

I don't really think anything tbh. Although I undoubtedly have some sort of internal prejudice about it because I roll me eyes inwardly at older people who do it. This may because i have two annoying aunts who both have pink hair and are both so performatively open-minded that their brains have fallen out. But it's not fair to lumber everyone like that so I might have to consider further what my internalised biases are!

I live in a very bohemian place and I see people with various hair colours all the time. Personally, I simply dont think it ever looks good on them- I have never seen anyone with hair like this and thought, wow it looks great. I dont judge them as people or assume anything about them in terms of their character, my view is merely based on aesthetics - I think super unnatural hair colours always make the person look unattractive and it often makes their hair look fried and unhealthy.

Again, just my personal opinion. People are free to disagree.

I had pink hair as a teenager in the 90s, then had DC and no longer had the time or energy to mess about with my hair. I’m surprised about all the politics etc. associated with hair colours, I never thought of it like that. I’d really stand out with coloured hair in the village where I live now but I’m already considered eccentric by default due to being British so I don’t think green hair would make that much difference!

If I saw someone with coloured hair I’d probably want to chat to them but might not be brave enough to actually do it!

I was just about to say this! The attitude that autistic people are to be avoided/lumped in with other characteristics that the average MN reader thinks are unacceptable and inferior is horrible to read.

Anyway I don't have brightly coloured hair because I'm of an age where being autistic meant you did everything possible to fit in and go unnoticed. It seems that a lot of people posting on this thread think we should still be trying to appear "normal".

Depends on the age (yes, I’m very unreasonable).

If they’re older, I assume they are the kind of person who makes being quirky and kooky and “I’m just mad, me!” their whole personality. They probably wear dungarees.

Plato - people don’t choose the colour of their skin. Brightly coloured hair is a deliberate choice - and a choice that the person wants to see. They are purposely choosing to make a statement about themselves to the world, and they know that is going to attract comment / attention - it’s what they want or they wouldn’t do it. I used to think pink hair was cool and neatly did it myself - but the look has been adopted by people whose world view and don’t share do I wouldn’t want to send a message that I was like that.

woukd you think fairly similar to a person in a scruffy suit as a clean tracksuit - are you judging style or cleanliness? It’s always the same troupe of scruffy tracksuit as though no clean tracksuit exists

I would like once in my life to go multicoloured - I don’t dye my hair at all and am rather scared of the cost and the like and how to chose the right colours for me

yes people will judge but those who judge negatively are the kind of people who really aren’t worth bothering yourself over

I think that’s the point. I rarely see it done well and always look roots, half ass and messy. Maybe that the look but it doesn’t look good often because it isn’t done well and doesn’t present well.

Aesthetically speaking, I don't dislike brighly-coloured hair on principle, but in practice it's very rarely done well. A large proportion of people who do it seem to have straggly, unkempt, damaged or badly home-dyed hair.

In terms of what I think it usually says about a person, I'd say they are often someone who considers themselves a bit 'alternative' or is an activist of some kind. Or they just like brightly-coloured hair!

I think it depends on the whole package. I had a year stint of colourful hair, but I was getting it done in a specialist salon and an appointment took a day and it looked REALLY good. But I also looked after my hair so well then because I knew unkempt coloured hair looks dreadful so it was always nicely blown or styled and in general I was well groomed (and very thin so my clothes looked better) at the time because I was 25 and didn’t have much else to do than pamper! I was always well received by people and got very little judgement. All my big career highlights were at this point at well so the negative impact can’t have been too bad.

I think the people who’ve done it at home with a box bleach and a tin of manic panic and generally don’t look put together get a very different reception. Like people above I would tend to put them in the ND/very far left bucket, but someone who just looks like they’re very into fashion/styling and it’s a part of that I’d view differently.

I love it, especially well done shades of green, aqua, and turquoise. Older women in my area however tend to just put in a bright splotch of colour, usually pink or purple, randomly into their grey, which I don't like.

I think super unnatural hair colours always make the person look unattractive

My neighbour always dies her hair a solid black and has done for a decade or more. It looks as unnatural as if it were blue or green. It obviously gives her confidence though.

Why do we have to associate particular styles and looks with character at all - it just seems so wrong and limiting self expression - oh you can’t wear that they will assume xxx when clearly xxx isn’t only associated with people who like that particular thing

Unnaturally coloured hair tends to be associated with certain groups of people, just like jet black dyed hair tended to be associated with Goths and punks back in the day.
When done professionally, multicoloured hair can look fab, but all too often it’s done on the cheap by someone’s best mate who’s spent 3 months training to be a hairdresser (or at least that’s what it looks like). Then in every case, the colours fade, grow out and just look muddy, especially green. I’ve got white hair now and would love a bright highlight in my hair, but know I’d hate it within a couple of weeks and don’t want the hassle of any maintenance.