Why do so many LGBTQ kids dye their hair purple/pink/blue?

[Anonymous]

Because everyone trying to be different has to dress the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of kids do this. Period.

Really? How many non-trans kids do you know aged under 10 with non-natural hair color? How many six year olds?

At least 3 in my neighborhood.

Yep I know one boy and quite a few girls who have died portions of their hair. Its definitely a thing right now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's so interesting to me how attitudes about these things change. In middle/high school, I was the only kid dyeing my hair crazy colors and it was a form of rebellion. My parents flipped out over it, my friends' parents hated me because I was a "bad influence", all the popular kids in school made fun of me. Curious how kids rebel nowadays.

I remember this too - I was considered weird. Now its actually normal. What do the actual non-conformist kids do these days?

[Anonymous]

For all of my life, there have been dominant teen cultures and counter-cultures. In the 80s, there were the preppy kids in pastel Izods, and then the counter-culture kids who were punk-ish or goth. Kids that don't want to be part of preppy mainstream culture, or don't feel accepted by it, create a counter-culture. There's a lot of reasons why a kid might seek out counter-culture. Being gay is one of them.
Even though purple/blue/pink hair is fairly common now, I think it is still seen as a bit "counter culture."

I have a niece who rotates her hair among these various shades. I have no idea what her sexual orientation is ( she has dated guys, but may be bi, or may resist labels) but she rejects many aspects of what she says as dominant consumer culture. I think the hair is one way of signalling that. That's fine -- we all use hair, makeup, clothes as a way of signalling our values.

PS the MS school teacher who sees their kids change the color weekly must teach a lot of blondes. If you're a brunette, you have to bleach out the natural color, then add the kool-aid or drug store dye to get those bright colors. The blue just won't show up on a brunette. It's much more of a commitment! A lot of kids just do the tips, for that reason.

[Anonymous]

If you can’t dye your hair pink at age 10, when IS the appropriate age to be doing so? I’d much rather my daughters experiment now and get it out of their system then having to try and “find themselves” at 30yo. This is not a knock from me on 30yo dying their hair bright colors, but it isn’t always acceptable in a professional environment and totally harmless.

[Anonymous]

I know a ton of kids in my daughter's elementary school who have dyed their hair at some point. We did a purple kool-aid dip that lasted a few weeks.

Dad vetoed the idea of purple dye - he's a bit of an authoritarian and dislikes that sort of nonconformity. Which makes me want to dye it even more. (my mom would have vetoed it for the same reasons.)

If I were a kid and my mom let me dye my hair a cool color, I'd absolutely do it. Childhood is the time you can do that stuff without having to worry about employability, etc.

[Anonymous]

Because they’re all unique and special, and no one else is like them... except for all the other kids doing the same exact thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's so interesting to me how attitudes about these things change. In middle/high school, I was the only kid dyeing my hair crazy colors and it was a form of rebellion. My parents flipped out over it, my friends' parents hated me because I was a "bad influence", all the popular kids in school made fun of me. Curious how kids rebel nowadays.

I remember this too - I was considered weird. Now its actually normal. What do the actual non-conformist kids do these days?

They just wear regular clothes, keep a regular appearance, and get good grades.

Edgy AF.

[Anonymous]

Attention

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they’re all unique and special, and no one else is like them... except for all the other kids doing the same exact thing.

Jesus. Please shut the f*** up.

young people want to experience individuation and find their identity. The fact that you don't understand that and reduce it to some pithy non-original comments is sad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of kids do this. Period.

Really? How many non-trans kids do you know aged under 10 with non-natural hair color? How many six year olds?

At least 3 in my neighborhood.

Yep I know one boy and quite a few girls who have died portions of their hair. Its definitely a thing right now

That are trans?

[Anonymous]

It's a young LGBTQ+ thing. We all go through the fun color hair phase.

I dyed mine pink after I came out as a sort of defense mechanism. I felt like everyone seeing me was just looking at me thinking, 'look at that big homo' so I decided to give them something to look at. So when someone was staring at me, it wasn't, in my mind, because they knew I was gay and hated me, but because they either liked or hated my pink hair. Took the attention off me and on to my hair. Also, as it turns out, I realized too late that sometimes others stare because they are also gay and trying to deduce if they've found another gay kindred spirit in the crowd. My gaydar is crap at detecting when someone is attracted to me but fabulous at detecting for others!

[Anonymous]

When we did our family Yankee swap gift exchange last weekend, at least 3 different gifts were some variation of hair chalk or hair dye kits. None of the kids there are gay (that I know of) but those hair dye kits were all the rage between both sexes of kids. They were the gifts that kept getting stolen during the exchange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's so interesting to me how attitudes about these things change. In middle/high school, I was the only kid dyeing my hair crazy colors and it was a form of rebellion. My parents flipped out over it, my friends' parents hated me because I was a "bad influence", all the popular kids in school made fun of me. Curious how kids rebel nowadays.

I remember this too - I was considered weird. Now its actually normal. What do the actual non-conformist kids do these days?

They just wear regular clothes, keep a regular appearance, and get good grades.

Edgy AF.

Actually, it’s back to drugs, getting pregnant, and flunking. Sure, a lot of stigma, but they are the non-conformist behaviors. I teach public school.

[Anonymous]

Am I the only who thinks it looks way better than an 80s perm? Maybe I'm just dating myself.