You’re shopping in the grocery store and a woman taps you on the shoulder to ask where she can find some Bagel Bites. She has bright blue hair. Don’t lie, your eyes are going to linger maybe a second too long. “What’s her story,” you wonder. What made her decide to ditch her natural hair color?

Odds are she’s not so different from yourself.

In the last decade, dying hair exciting colors — like electric blue and hot pink — has become a popular mode of self-expression.

“Some people wear different clothes. I change the color of my hair,” Seamus Carton (’19) said, who currently sports a greenish-blue hue.

Whereas before someone would need a special occasion like a music festival to give them an excuse to deck themselves out with rainbow hair, the changing society has made this fashion statement one to be seen by people everywhere.

“The first time I dyed it was in the summer because I didn’t like my hair color, but now I just do it because I like standing out,” said Hannah Sebelist (’20), who has dyed her hair red and purple.

Although some people stereotype a certain persona with colored hair, there’s no label that fits the vast amount of people who choose to participate.

“When I died my hair darker, a bunch of people called me emo,” Sebelist said. “I think people associate hair color with the type of person you are, even if you’re not that type of person.”

Think about the broad variety of people with fun hair. Some celebrities like Nicole Richie, Katy Perry, and Demi Lovato have made this style more mainstream.

But as opposed to those celebrities, it seems that most students like to color their hair themselves. It’s less expensive and can be fun.

“I like to do it myself because it feels like an art project,” said Ella Maley (’20), who dyed her hair pink in eighth grade.

But dying hair dye isn’t always as easy as it looks and needs to be prepared for.

Gaige Dubious (’19) learned this the hard way, “Long story short, in one weekend, I bleached my hair two times, dyed it three times, shampooed it about seven times, just for it to come out looking like a troll,” Dubois said. “So the next day I went to Hair Cuttery for them to try and fix it, but they said they couldn’t dye it because my hair would indeed fall out.”

Fortunately, they gave her a conditioning treatment and chopped off dead ends and it turned out exactly how she wanted it.

Dying your hair is a commitment whether you keep up with it, let it fade out, or dye it again.

But even after Dubois’ horror story, she said, “If you feel more confident with the cool hair color or any color in general, go for it, you do you. Don’t worry about what other people think; it’s just hair, it will grow back.”

Maybe next time you run into the lady at the grocery store you will ask her for her hair coloring tips.