I was never allowed to dye my hair in my old school, but I was always thinking of what colour I’d dye it once I got out of there, I used to colour my hair in with highlighters and chalk, passing the time in class. When I moved to my new school, I was given the freedom to change my hair colour. I worked my way through the colour wheel, from black, grey and white, to bright pink, candy floss pink/peach, to purple, countless variations of green, and navy blue, and now orange. I dye my hair usually in times of change, whether a new environment, a new emotional state of mind, or an internal struggle with myself.

I had to stop dying my hair because it started falling out, which ended up with me cutting it all off in Winter 2017. After a few months of rejuvenation, I had set my sights on orange as my next colour. I hadn’t realised how much I had missed having bright hair, until I started feeling bland and unremarkable, with my natural blonde hair. Your imprint on the world is different with bright hair; people approach and perceive you in a different way, it allows you to be the source of your own happiness. You don’t realise how much you can relate to a colour until its on top of your head summing you up so perfectly as a person.

I’ve been asked so many times; ‘did you dye your hair to get attention?’. The answer? ‘No. My hair represents who I am, and how I feel in that moment in time. My hair colour changes when something significant happens. When it is necessary for a complete physical change.’ I do it for myself.

I decided to dye my hair because I felt like my normal hair was boring, and I wanted a change in my life. I’d thought about it before college, but was always too afraid to, until I realised that if I didn’t dye it while I was young, maybe I’d never do it—so I changed it to pink! I’m from a small town in France, where almost nobody has their hair dyed a crazy colour, so it was a big step! I’m almost always wearing black, so I wanted a touch of colour to complete my look. I don’t regret anything, and can’t imagine going back to my natural hair. I don’t feel like I have an extroverted personality because of my bright hair—but I definitely feel less boring. I do feel like I belong to a small community because of it; when I see someone with dyed coloured hair, I think we may have some things in common and be able to talk more easily.

I choose my hair colour according to what I think might suit me, but the pink was also a choice to surprise people and challenge myself. I never wore pink growing up because of its association to females, I wanted to be ‘one of the boys’, so pink was the enemy; and as a metalhead/gothic-esque girl, it wasn’t really my colour. But then I learnt a lot about feminism and realised I wanted to be ‘one of the boys’ because I was told that girls and pink weren’t cool enough. I had to reject barbie pink to be one of them, and suddenly I didn’t want to be that version of myself anymore.

The pink hair was a fuck-it, feminist symbol for me, even though its still ironic in today’s society. It was proof of my new state of mind, so I loved it. I’ve been pretty discreet my whole lie, even if my style wasn’t the most common. In France, people judge you base of your clothes, makeup and hair. The bright pink was my way of saying ‘look at me now’, because I liked who I was, and I didn’t care if people were judging me anymore.

I started dying my hair when I was about 13, I remember feeling like my hair didn’t match how I felt inside. I never hated it, but it just felt really boring to me, so that summer I got blue stripes through my hair. I gave me such a buzz, and sense of satisfaction, because I felt more like myself—like the tone of my hair was the tone of my mood. I started changing my hair every summer, moving from blue to red to purple, seeing what feeling each colour brought out in me.

Once I hit 17, I started to properly hone in on who I was, I tried green and it fit me so well, I fell in love with it. I’ve only changed my hair once since then. I dyed it every colour i’d never been before, like silver and orange, and then cut it all off and went back to green. I’ve been green ever since, and have never loved it more!

I think I’ve found a medium through which I can figure out who I am and how I feel, and I really loving having that represented on me. I think the period, where I was constantly changing and cutting my hair, was a point in my life where I needed to choose a path in life and for myself, and it translated into my hair.

Essentially, I dyed my hair because I wanted to distance myself from the people where I come from, in Donegal—I don’t really have many good memories from there. Not many of the people have their hair dyed unnatural colours, and it’s usually considered pretty strange. My hair made me feel like a different person—like I was someone way more confident than I actually am. It’s nice because people usually think I’m really confident, when I don’t feel like I am. I choose my colour based off of the vibe that I’m feeling at the time.