One appearance choice does not fit all (a continuing series)

[firecat]

A friend who is a musician was told that in order to make a better impression at auditions, she needed to dye her hair.

I used to dye my hair for fun. I currently don't dye my hair because I am enjoying watching it turn gray. But occasionally someone thinks my OH is my son, and then I feel tempted to start dying it again.

So I am wondering about the reasons people dye or don't dye their hair, and your thoughts about hair dying in general.

Poll #3554 Hair dye choices

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 68

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Do you dye your hair (using permanent or semi-permanent dye)?

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Yes
16 (23.5%)

No
20 (29.4%)

Sometimes
22 (32.4%)

I tried it once or twice
12 (17.6%)

I'm thinking about it
9 (13.2%)

Ticky box!
7 (10.3%)

Why or why not? (Feel free to elaborate in comments)

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What is your gender identity?

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Comments

[rivenwanderer]

I put in purple streaks once every month or two. The dye I use fades to a not-unattractive shade of pink after three or four weeks. Since my hair is a fairly light color (medium-light brown), I don't need to bleach--I don't think I'd dye my hair at all if bleach was required. I really like purple, so it's nice and comforting for me to have some with me all the time, and I like having a "this person is not 100% mainstream" marker (though I'm obviously not gutsy enough to get a more permanent body mod for that purpose). It's also convenient sometimes to have a descriptor of how I look that's not focused on my body or the way I dress. I started dyeing in college, when a lot of my peers were experimenting with coloring their hair, and stuck with it because I like it.

Re-dyeing my hair is kind of a barometer for how busy I am and how willing I am to take time for self-care--it takes most of an evening for my girlfriend and I to dye my hair (it's more work because of the precision of the streaks, and the length of my hair). I might not take an evening off to relax or go to the hot tub or whatever, but eventually the sight of my hair fading will drive me to schedule in a night to re-dye. The process itself tends to relax me, so I think it's a good thing. Ideally, I think once every 6 weeks would be a good frequency to recolor, but sometimes I go for as long as 4 months (my mental image still has purple hair even when it's practically faded to nothing).