On hair, what I’ve tried, and what I’m interested in trying
This note attempts to capture what I’ve tried with my hair and what I’m thinking about trying going forward. The note is composed of a gallery of pictures of me, my friends, and pinterest pics for examples.
my hair, in short
I’ve mostly played around with hair at or near shoulder length, something like a slightly-longer-than bi bob. Last haircut in December 2023, 5 months after a coloring in July:
I’ve also gone longer, letting hair go beneath shoulder length, which was cute I liked, but I will likely keep my hair shorter than this length (Oct 2022):
I often struggle with my hair frizzing up or showing damage at the ends, and am trying to find better ways to avoid long term hair damage. Bed head can look cute, but the frizz can be pretty hard to manage at times:
previous colorings
Both previous times that I’ve dyed my hair, I’ve gone with a blue-green shade in the front parting.
July 2023:
July 2022:
My friends, and how my hair has been for the last year
The main thing I’m trying to capture with my hair is a playful freedom of expression.
case study: friends in my industry
In my industry (cryptography engineers and researchers), I’m trying to reflect on my sense of style, freedom, and a departure from more normative interpretations of gender and professionalism. Tarun gets it, playing with color and form:
Waylon gets it; his faded mullet, light faded button down, and textured face jewelery are a little punk, while remaining and approachable:
Anna’s hair also gets it; a little color takes her look into a creative, fun space. The wihte and black lines in my look are a bit boring by contrast.
case study: personal life
In my personal life, I want my hair to reflect my sense of playfulness and a reflection that my interpretation of masculinity can be free, and expressive.
I often wear my hair down, though occasionally put it up when warm, or to get it out of the way. I’ve let the color fade a lot.
I think I’d like to keep the color more vibrant than I have lately:
Two shots with a little more color. I like the color here, but I’d be curious to dye more of it, or even try a few different colors
shots from pinterest
And now, a bunch of pictures from the internet. A thing I notice, many of the models on pinterest have either darker complexion, darker hair, or both, which really makes the colored hair stand out and pop.
Some pictures go the opposite way: the model pulls off platinum blonde, gray, or white, and uses color as the highlight accent. These seem like they might not grow in as well, and might take a lot of maintenance, and the frequent bleachings could be bad for the hair.
I have a much lighter hair color, and I think warmer colors and/or colors that contrast with my lighter shade of brown might generally look best.
men with good medium length hair
I want my hair to fall like this and not frizz up:
The model in this shot looks dumb, but he has good hair. I like how the green complements his natural color, which is darker.
This guy makes pink work. The lighter warmer color is doing a lot for this guy.
Long top short sides idea
I would consider cutting the sides short like this and dying the top, though I think I’m more likely to stick with my longer hair.
This guy has a good warm color thing going on, to match his darker brown hair.
This short side looks like it would require a lot of effort to maintain, though not as much as the colored sides below. The mixed colors stand out against his darker hair.
I like this aesthetic a lot, but with his darker skin and hair color, I don’t think it would come out well for me.
The dyed sides looks really pretty, but I don’t think it would be easy to grow in. This guy pulls off platinum blonde and throws in the cool blue accent. This is really pretty, but not something I think I’m going for personally.
Cute concept, simple:
the interesting
With my complexion, I think I want a warm color, but this guy shows how that can fall down. This guy has lovely hair, but the color doesn’t suit him:
the bad
This guy’s blue tone looks very cold. It’s aesthetically there, but he also looks like a zombie from Game of Thrones.
Anime character syndrome. I think I’d actually be interested to go a light shade sometime! I’ve seen some women with great white hair. But most of the platinum blond dyes I see for men look pretty weird:
I’m not sure what’s going on with this guy, his face is weirdy hyperfeminized, maybe CGI. His hair actually looks good though:
e.g. this girl does white really well, and makes me want to try white:
Her too:
the womens
Women’s hair pictures on pinterest look photoshopped and I’m not sure how well grounded they are in reality. Some could be useful as texture and color refernce.
I really like the dark green color and texture in this shot:
similar good color, on a super photoshopped face:
I think I could be interested in a darker shade of purple:
shots of women that would probably not work for me
I really like the blending of blue and purple for this gal, I’m not sure how well it would come out for me personally:
This girl has some great electric blue-green highlights; I think it mostly works because of her length, and the contrast to her darker brown hair, and would work better if her hair were even darker, for contrast:
end thought: goals
note on hair dye
- on 2024-05-28, dyed at Heartzilla salon with:
- joico black pearl semi-perm mixed with
- chroma silk vivids green
- want to shift more into green than blue. Ana suggested:
- To tone down the first green, I would mix a bit of black in the green mix, like the darker mix we did on the roots. Adding more plain green on the lighter areas will result on the same vivid green, but alas, bluish under a brighter light. Adding a mix of green and a bit of black may tome down the “blue” in the green."
- alyssa recommended arctic fox hair color dye “the best”