I completely agree with the above.
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It’s going to depend a lot on what your job specifics are and also location. Tattoos and dyed hair didnt bother a single parent or student I taught on the west coast because they all had tattoos and piercings and dyed hair as well or were very exposed to it. On the east coast, it was a Big Problem to have purple hair or piercings or tattoos showing. The clientele had different ideas about that sort of thing. I will say, I dont think it’s appropriate to be showy in that way at work. I’m there to teach your child or ride your horse, not shock or amaze you with my personal appearance choices. So when I’m at work, the tattoos are covered, the piercings (even ears) are out, and I dont dye my hair abnormal colors.
if you’re one of my students, I probably wont have much to say about it. Wear a hairnet or braid it and ride your horse well. If you have a great ride, you stood out, maybe even more so with the hair. Yay you. However…are you that good that you arent going to make a mistake? Because it’s pretty easy to remember the rider with the bright pink hair…
at the end of the day, I wish people would concentrate on horsemanship and educating themselves as much as they concentrate on “looking original”.
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If your trainer is GM then there might be an issue. Otherwise most people couldn’t care less. Tattoos are becoming more and more acceptable in the workplace, as are non-natural hair colors.
I’m a millennial, a business owner, and the proud owner (wearer?) of several tattoos. As an employer I couldn’t give 2 sh*ts about tattoos/piercings/hair as long as they don’t depict hate speech or imagery. I’m all for expressing yourself!!
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My preference would be for a large number of feathers as hair extensions rather than dying your hair. Dyed hair is so yesterdays news. 
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Hi. I am a trainer and have been a professional for 15+ years. We attend rated shows, go to Wellington in the winter, and have had horses qualify for Devon, for Zone Finals, for Pony Finals, etc. I am heavily tattooed, including a 1/2 sleeve. I’ve had crazy hair (but it’s “normal” at this time). I wear sun shirts mostly, but my customers know that I have lots of ink. I have students with wild, colorful hair, and my barn manager has lots of tattoos-and a nose ring, the horror!
Your hair will be in a helmet (and hopefully in a hairnet) when you are riding, so it can’t be seen as easily. Hell, I’ve seen bright red and hot pink hairnets if you want to be really matchy (yes, they exist).
The way I see it, if you can answer “yes” to the following questions, you can do as you please: Do you show up on time? Are you helpful? Are you respectful? Do you tuck in your shirt and wear clean breeches? Are your horsemanship skills on point? Do you dress appropriately for clinics, lessons, and shows? Do you pay your bills on time?
If you can ride well and perform the job, I say, express yourself how you please
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You know you can totally express yourself and be a good horseman. They are not mutually exclusive. Nobody yet has shown me how a tattoo affects the ability to ride a green OTTB or jump effectively.
I have a 3/4 sleeve and I sure as heck am not covering it up when I wear my normal short sleeve shirts to teach or ride.
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Having the unfortunate experience of visiting family members residing in mental health facilities, I have seen a lot of people struggling with their identity and sense of self who express this through their hair color or cut. So many of them once stabilized lament over their hair decision and do what they can to restore to a more normal look, realizing they don’t really want to look so different after all. I’ve even seen parents get their kids hair extensions and a stylist to restore the natural color because they finally had that “ah-ha!” moment that unicorn hair and a half shaved head does make people look at you differently. It’s also $200/every 2-3 weeks to maintain bright blue or green on dark hair that has been bleached platinum, so it’s pretty expensive to keep it looking fresh, and I don’t think most people realize the cost. It’s not really for everyone. It’s really pretty the first week or two, though.
I think for those who think it’s edgy or stylish, that’s fine. But there’s always that group that is really struggling, and my heart goes out to them. I’m with you, when someone suddenly does it and it’s unusual or abrupt for that individual, it’s more of a trigger that something may be wrong or that person may be struggling. I can’t tell you how many times, even today, that has been the case. It’s sad. So, my first thoughts when I see crazy color that doesn’t really match the person is to think “I hope they aren’t struggling with their identity and I hope they are okay.”
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I did not say they were exclusive.
and it’s your choice to not cover up. I also have a sleeve as well as both legs covered, but I don’t feel it’s appropriate to display them while I’m teaching. Its not the thing about me I want people to remember. I also don’t want melanoma if I can help it and since my sleeve is very black, it gets hot, so theres that as well.
Years ago I was waiting for a walk-on ferryboat up the coast, where a lot of transient youth would come through in the summers to tree plant or live on the land. There was a young man under 20 sitting huddled up in a hoody on the dock. At one point I realized he had a huge face tattoo. It really made me think about how if you feel excluded, alienated, at war with the world, it’s tempting to do something that makes that reaction from the world objectively true. Feeling like “People are looking at me like I’m a freak and I don’t know why” is much harder to process than “People are looking at me like I’m a freak but that’s because they can’t handle my assertive fashion choices.” It also made me really glad that all my tendencies that way had been limited to hair and clothing, that could be changed once I decided to stop skulking. But this kid had taken his feelings about himself in late adolescence, and made them manifest on his face, and life was always going to be hard for him.
I thought this thread was about hair color, not tattoos? This discussion has made quite a departure.
Dye your hair whatever you want. But maintain it. Nothing is worse than “unicorn hair” that has faded into some sad, snot-green color. Faded hair makes a person look lazy, and everyone takes note.
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I’m staying at my current barn for a few more years (until I’m done with high school now) and I figured I’d go back to the red I used to have when I do find another person to work under.
I don’t think people realize how expensive it is to maintain. My SO seriously spent $200 every two-three weeks (some people can make it four but they are lucky) to keep his daughter’s bright blue hair a nice color. Why? She was really struggling with life and was using her hair to express herself, and none of us could stand the look of the washed out color. Dropping the color resulted in her getting more tattoos, so the decision was made to go with the color and let the doctors keep chipping away at her. She’s now in school, getting straight A’s in her classes, and is growing our her brown hair. Her stable self realized that it’s impossible to maintain and to your point there is nothing the looks worse than the washed out color of someone with dark roots and that horrific color. She was lucky to have wealthy parents. I’ve seen kids attempt this at home and burn their hair while trying to bleach it and then try to color up that hot mess. Dry hair won’t hold color, either.
I will say, she did have a pretty cool ombre going when we cut her off the color for a while. She has dark hair and it was growing back in, and the purple over platinum dye had started to fade and was really pretty. Of course as soon as I told her that it looked pretty she begged her mom and dad to get her hair recolored! Ahh, I’m so glad she’s doing better. Fun times!
Are you blonde, or are you going to first bleach to platinum and then go purple, or put purple on top of a naturally dark color?
I’ve seen some amazing red, purple and blue on dark hair. Really beautiful results that seem to last long. Color on blonde is more obvious, and bleached to platinum to add color will be expensive to maintain in the long run. If it’s just for the summer to try something out then why not? I would not recommend long term for bleaching and then coloring, unless you have a Kardashian budget and can afford to keep it deeply conditioned and keep the color fresh and bold.
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In the horse world I do not think it would matter too much. I disagree with the statement about East Coast trainers as I have NEVER had a trainer, clinician or employer care about my hair color so long as I kept on top of the color and dressed in a professional manner. That was from the mid 90’s to about 2012. I also would get it professionally done. I didn’t do at home dye jobs with manic panic. Piercings have never really been my thing and I always wore studs or bars if I had gauges in as I was afraid of something getting caught up in them and ripping them out.
Always keep in mind wild hair colors and getting tattoos that cannot be covered up should not come before employment “because that’s who you are.” I have tattoos and my hair has been every color you can think of. However, until recently all tattoos were covered by shorts and a t-shirt and I can no longer dye my hair crazy colors as I am in the military. Small sacrifice to have a career I love. There will be plenty of time after retirement to rock the wild hair again.
Red you absolutely need to keep on top of. It fades faster than other colors and looks terrible when it starts to fade.
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I have my dark brunette hair coloured a lovely purple ombré, which fades to a pink as it gets washed over about 5 weeks. I get it professionally applied so it lasts and looks nice as dark hair is harder to accept colours like these…we have to colour my hair to a blond before the purple first, then it doesn’t just “wash away” but fades more to the blond. Under my helmet you can’t tell what colour it is, but my trainer doesn’t give a flying fig what colour hair we have as long as it’s neatly fastened up for riding and showing! Her groom currently has bright dyed red hair (it’s been many different colours), she’s been with her for over 10 years…so nope, dyed hair doesn’t matter to my my trainer as long as you do a good
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Depends on the shade and the base. I started dying mine red a few months ago. My hairdresser mixes my personal concoctions and gives them a brown base so when they do fade they fade to a brown red vs the orange red that can definitely look “off” when not maintained. You do have to be careful to not wash it every single day and best to stick with cold water, but I think that is true of almost anything red or a more unique color. I’ve gotten so many compliments on it. I miss my blonde sometimes, but am loving the red for now.
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Of course the base matters. The OP is talking about crazy colors so I am assuming firehouse red. Red will fade faster than other unique colors. Given the OP is in high school I also assuming she would be inclined to use box hair dye and manic panic.
I think the worst fade is the dark blues to dishwater greys. Fresh blue is so pretty, but unmaintained it just looks gross. When I did wild colors a very very long time ago from a box I did fuschia and it faded to a lovely ballerina pink… I think that may be one of the only colors I’ve seen fade out gracefully. However, I also have blonde hair and that makes it way easier than dark hair. I don’t know how those with naturally dark hair have the patience to dye fun colors and keep them that way!
If you aren’t trying for a job then do what you want with your hair. You trainer and judges shouldn’t care (esp because in hunters your hair will be up anyways and if you have a ponytail flopping about they won’t care if it is blonde, brown, red, black, or purple… you’ll get dinged for it regardless).
No big deal as long as you dress appropriately otherwise.
If you ride in the hunters just use a neutral hairnet or multiple as needed if it’s super vibrant. Black over blue, dark brown over red or purple, chestnut over pink, blonde over pastels.
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I think this day in age, reactions are all over the map. Hair color, tattoos, piercings have all become more popular and acceptable, but there are people who don’t feel like they present professionally.
As a client, I think you can do what you like as long as you make sure you dress/present yourself on par with the barn’s own feel. IE if it’s a collared-shirt and breeches kind of barn, I’d worry more about someone showing up in a tank top and booty shorts than someone who has purple hair in a tidy ponytail and wears breeches and a polo.
As you’re entering into the professional world, if I were you, I’d be as conservative as possible initially in order to let your skills be the first thing that are noticed. Just as in any job situation, some work environments are going to be okay with less conservative appearances (whether that’s shorts or blue hair) and others require very conservative appearances (whether that’s natural hair color or a full suit every day). Showcase your value as an employee first. No, your hair color shouldn’t matter, but let’s face it, there are still environments who aren’t comfortable with that. Then you can always ask if it’s alright down the line - or if it’s an acceptable thing within that barn’s environment, go for it!
If that’s truly who you are and you just can’t bear the thought of being more conservative, than just go with it, but understand that there are more traditional environments out there that still judge books by their cover. 
I’ll say for me, I’d rather see a tidily presented person who is professional, courteous, and showcases good horsemanship who happens to have a sleeve tattoo than an unadorned person who is unprofessional, sloppy, rude, and showcases poor horsemanship!
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