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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
Interesting all the emphasis on keeping the color fresh and pretty. I associate crazy color hair with home made haircuts and patchy fading dye jobs.
It’s possible there are parts of the young adult world where people have sharp maintained salon hair cuts and general stylish fashion, and just happen to have that hair dyed a flattering blue or pink or bright red. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that IRL though. So my association with crazy color is punk or grunge, faded color on scruffy hair. Or mohawks.
I work in marketing so I’m working with professionals who might be quirky but own it, and they can’t look like they’ve rolled out of a crackhouse or pot dispensary I’m also in a hunter barn where kids are riding six figure horses, so the few who have gone with color have had it styled nicely. I will say it is sometimes a little odd to see flaming red on an otherwise normal haircut. I always think Raggedy Ann when I see that.
I also noticed the last time I stayed at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas that there were a lot of people with technicolor hair but it was all well coiffed. It makes sense for services industry workers in trendy locations.
Couldn’t help but notice the hair on the shooting suspect. This is exactly the kind of kid that @Scribbler and I are talking about. Troubled guy.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/adult-colorado-school-shooting-suspect-appears-in-court
I always went to a salon for my hair color. A) better products keep your hair healthy. And B) the pros do a much better job.
I was paying $190 just like the woman dying her hair to cover up the grey. It just looks better. Also, I have had more than one stylist be shocked at how nice my hair is despite the amount of coloring I did.
That being said, if you saw me on the street I’m sure you’d think I had some angst or whatever going on because purple hair.
I remember the first time I saw black nail polish on a nice manicure on a well groomed office worker who was in a night class I was teaching. It looked really good. Up to that point that was another thing I only associated with punk and grunge.
Yup.
(For reference, i’m 43. Ancient, according to my students.) Unconventional color is common to the point of being mainstream here. I see hideous grow out/fade out on conventional colored dye jobs a dozen times a day. The fade out on unconventional color doesn’t strike me as being worse. People who choose unusual color are normally the type who are into makeup and fashion and are generally on top of upkeep. Or at least are willing to redye their hair more often than most.
A young colleague has absolutely stunning blue hair that falls to her waist. Most of it is actually white/platinum extensions purchased from Sally’s and dyed. Her real hair is shoulder length and she goes a little easier with the blue on it because the dye process damages it too much otherwise. The blue is her signature. She was 14 when she started teaching for us and her hair was blue even then. The guitars her sponsor companies provide her are all in shades of blue. She’s the most gifted player under 21 that I’ve encountered. She also turned down an opening at Berkeley to attend an in state college and majors in business. Very intellegent and practical and probably makes more than I do already.
It’s also true my current life has me in the blue collar/lower middle class suburbs/exurbs, and I don’t get downtown much to see what fashionable looks like these days (this suits me fine, because horses). In general the most stylish young folks in this city are Chinese and Japanese (both local kids and international students), and while I don’t associate crazy color with them, they certainly do some equally artificial red and blonde and sorrel bleach jobs on their hair. I’m sure some of them must move on to crazy color, and if they did, it would look equally fashionable, and would not make me or anyone think of punk, grunge, or school shooters. But kids with that amount of style (and cash) don’t turn up on my daily routine these days.
