By Bella Whitmore | Intern
“It’ll grow back!” and “It’s just hair!” are common phrases we have heard from loved ones in an attempt to console us after a bad haircut. They usually have a negative connotation and are typically said purely out of pity. Despite this, I believe these phrases can also be used in a better way to justify experimenting with our hair than as a sad, poorly timed consolation.
This is a topic that very much hits home for me, for better and for worse.
My freshman year of high school, I got bangs, and they were terrible. My freshman year of college, I dyed a good portion of my hair hot pink, and I loved it. Two very different scenarios that yielded two very different reactions taught me some very valuable lessons.
I was so excited to cut my bangs in high school. I was constantly pinning up fake bangs with bobby pins and admiring photos of Zooey Deschanel, getting excited for the big day. You could imagine my disappointment when I left the salon after 10 minutes, during which the hairdresser sloppily cut the most tragic bangs you have ever seen. I was in denial at first, trying to convince myself that they looked good, but by the end of the day, I — and everyone around me — had come to the conclusion that they were just bad.
However, I can’t put all the blame on the hairdresser because it quickly occurred to me that my face and hair were just not very compatible with the hairstyle. All those years of wondering what I would look like with bangs finally came to a conclusion. Although bangs were nothing close to what I wanted them to be, I was grateful for the fact that I finally knew what it was like to have them. So, I took the lesson, borrowed my grandma’s heat styling brush and vowed to never try bangs again.
When I dyed the underside of my hair hot pink in college, though, it was a very different experience. I was incredibly nervous going into the appointment, as I had never dyed my hair. Leaving the salon, though, I felt like the coolest version of myself with my “lava-girl” bright pink hair. It was such a drastic change for me and so out of character, but I was in love. I did everything I could to preserve it, including using pink shampoo and conditioner that definitely stained the showers of the communal residence hall bathrooms, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
So, there is really no reason to be scared to do crazy and fun things with your hair. Whether you initially like it or not, experimenting with your hair allows you to feel like a fun new version of yourself and helps you to kill your curiosity. Hasn’t everyone wondered at least once what they would look like with bangs or a funky color?
At the end of the day, it really is just hair, and it really will grow back, so why not go for it?
