The Mane Story

Students discuss thick and thin of natural hair color

Honey blond, sunny red, cinnamon brown and wine auburn are just a few colors among the many options on the market for hair color dyes. The dye comes in tiny bottles that can be mixed together and applied to hair. Within an hour, a person can change his or her entire appearance by simply dying, frosting or even highlighting his or her hair.

People tend to have strong feelings about the hair color they were born with. Some choose to stay natural, while others change color as often as they change clothes. Junior Lindsay Perry is the only redheaded person in her family. Perry believes she inherited the unique color both from her great grandmother and her father's family, which has Scottish, Irish and English roots.

Perry feels that her hair holds her back because is it hard to change. She admitted to being jealous of people with brown hair because they are able to dye it different colors.

To some, dying hair is not as glamorous as others think. "I like [my hair color]," freshman Melissa Francisco said of her brown hair. "I wouldn't want to change it. I just highlighted it once, but that was a while ago."

Sophomore Maggie Mintzer, who has red hair, sees her hair color as an asset. "I like it because it's different," she said. "A lot of people [commented on the color] when I was little. I used to tell people I had beautiful hair because people would tell me that."

It may seem that people with certain hair colors tend to travel in packs. "I don't do it consciously, but I have acquired quite a few redheaded friends," Perry said. One of her redheaded buddies, junior Clint Curtis, met Perry at a party while standing in line for the bathroom with another redheaded friend, senior Melanie Oglesby. A conversation about redhead jokes was the start of their friendship.

Perry confessed that she had transitioned from hating her hair to appreciating it "for novelty." She said she started to value "the things [about her body] that go along with the red hair, such as a pale complexion and out-of-control freckles, and white-blond eyelashes and eyebrows … that at one time [she] disliked."

Senior Annie Provencher and her mother are the only people in their family to have red hair.

"Growing up I stood out, especially since my name is Annie, so I got a lot of 'Little Orphan Annie' and 'Anne of Green Gables' jokes," Provencher said.

She also said she would never color her hair. "I'm too scared to ruin it forever," Provencher said. "You can't get this color in a bottle."

One other color that seems to have been replicated from the bottle many times is blond. With multiple versions of the color being offered, including honey blond, blond frost and pale champagne, the color has taken on many dimensions. Blonds always have been rumored to have more fun. Whether this is true or not, some students have strong feelings about it.

Freshman Bristol Savage, who has naturally blond hair, thinks that blonds do have more fun. Her friend, freshman Leah Twardzik, didn't agree. "I don't think blonds have more fun," she said. "I don't think hair color has anything to do with it."

The girls do agree that condescending comments about being blonde can become irritating. "If I say something dumb, people comment on it," Savage said.

Some students look to their hair color as a defining aspect of their personality and a way to set them apart from everyone else. Sophomore Mallory Napier is the middle child in her redheaded family. Both her older sister and a younger brother have natural red hair, although Napier's sister dyes her hair blond.

All the siblings in Napier's family took after their redheaded father. "I love having red hair," Napier said. "It's something that makes me different than the majority of people." Napier didn't always feel this way, however. While she said that in elementary school she couldn't avoid teasing, she tends to receive more compliments about her hair than about anything else, she said.

Junior Julia Redden is the first person in her family who ever had red or curly hair. "I have so many memories of me screaming and crying while my mom tried to brush through my hair, and then eventually gave up," Redden said.

"I feel that being a redhead has made my personality more quirky and crazy in response to the environment I have grown up in, and now I have responded accordingly," Redden added.

So, whatever the hair color, from black to blond, the fact remains that hair seems to leave a big impression on people. "I just like change I guess," sophomore Jenna Milnes said about dying her hair. And the changes will continue, as long as the options remain open for the choosing.