Dyeing hair

I dyed my hair.

Well, more like I bleached it. I started bleaching my hair last year, all because I didn’t want to see my grey hair. It became annoying to do that every time I needed to do this when my hair grew back to black from the roots. I was thinking of leaving it until the hair grew enough to cut it off, but I couldn’t bear to look at my hair become a mess, so I bleached it in the end. Since I came out of Korea, I’ve got quite used to dyeing my hair by myself. Of course, I’m not a professional; therefore, sometimes I miss some spots or make it a little dull; however, as much as I’ve experienced, the result came out looking okay.

When I was little, I couldn’t dye my hair because it would damage my hair. In middle and high school, there was a rule that banned dyeing hair. Even when I finally went to university, I dyed my hair as dark brown or dark purple, but not a dramatically bright colour. To be honest, I started looking after my appearance very late; I got my eyebrow done for the first time in my third year of university. I went to a hair salon a handful of times a year, even though it was because for a haircut. I did get a shortcut sometime, like a man, which was pretty bold, but dying hair was a kind of taboo. Not only for social circumstances, but also my parents didn’t like it as well.

Then, just a week before I quit my job and went abroad, I dyed my hair very bright red. I always wanted to dye my hair red, but as I said, I was bound by so many rules. And also in Korean society, it was a bit too much for a normal office worker to dye their hair a bright colour. So I got the conclusion that I would dye my hair just before being free as a celebration. Well, my boss, of course, furiously; he didn’t like it. He said I should be patient and dye my hair after the last day of work. To be fair, it was little revenge for all the shit he gave to me while I worked, so I just laughed it off. Oddly, I still remember that feeling of exhilaration and delight that I changed something on my own.

After that point, I kept dyeing and bleaching my hair with many different colours, because of my feeling down, to change how I look, or simply bored. Unlike in Korea, where there were limited colour choices, in Australia and New Zealand, there is easy access to hair dye products in various colours. I dyed and bleached my hair from red to pink, blue, silver, green, orange, then black, brown, auburn, and then blonde again. Also, my hair was very long first, then short, and grew again, and very short. Of course, as a poor backpacker, I couldn’t even dream about going to a hair salon, so I either cut it myself or asked friends to do it.

Dyeing my hair is a kind of deficiency for me. It is something I wanted to do, but couldn’t due to the school’s or work’s rules, or because my parents banned it. That is why I’m doing it after being grown-up, still feeling like a little girl. Every time I dye my hair, I remember that feeling of refreshment when my hair became red for the first time. Due to loving that feeling, I keep changing my hair again and again. This is something I can do and get results very quickly from what I decide on my own. Therefore, I felt joyful even making a ridiculous decision to bleach my hair to get rid of grey hair on my scalp; The feeling of satisfaction of changing, instead of discomfort from getting old. Fortunately, I still have thick and strong hair after all.

Perhaps I can’t dye my hair forever. When I get old, my hair will also lose and become weak. Even though I am still thinking that when my hair becomes all grey, it would be awesome to dye it as flower pink, and that makes me imagine my future as an extraordinary granny.