Tips for Living with Artsy Hair

So. If you, like me, have long dreamed about having artistic hair, I want to encourage you wholeheartedly to go for it. If you're an artist or art faculty or graphic designer or web designer, there are people out there already who are disappointed that your hair is not green or purple or blue. I took the leap just a few weeks ago, and I could not be happier. Turns out, there were only two kinds of people in my life: people who loved my purple hair, and people who thought I already had purple hair. And I'm now the Faculty Member Most Likely to be trotted out to meet prospective students; purple hair gives you some street cred with high school students that I had not, apparently, fully appreciated.

That being said, however, living with hair this color has some unique aspects to it. Here are some tips to help you live with artsy hair.

1. Expect additions to your morning routine. You get up, pour coffee, say affirmations, brush teeth, etc. etc. You will now need to add "clean ears" to that list, because overnight they will have transformed to be the same color as your hair. And this happens Every. Single. Day.

2. Invest in night cream for your face and neck. Use it every night. Not because of wrinkles, but because it makes it a lot easier to wipe the dye off your face and neck the next morning.

Here I am, rocking my
purple and red combination

3. Purchase some new bed linens and towels. Shoot for something that is your new hair color. Or dark brown. Or black. Black is good.

4. Put away the fancy nightie. Sleep in a tye-dyed tee shirt. It makes more sense. You'll find out why.

5. Remember shower caps? Yeah. Get some.

6. Learn a new shower pattern. My shower routine generally involved me having my head under the shower head for most of the time. My new shower routine is more in the "splash and step away" vein. I also shower in two temperatures, starting cooler while I wash and condition my hair, and turning up the warmth for washing the rest of me.

7. Understand that "wash, rinse, repeat" is a fallacy. You don't need to repeat. Wash, rinse is enough.

8. Do you have a really good tub and tile cleaner? Good.

9. Buy some nail polish. Scratching one's head yields, uh ... interesting and difficult to dispell results under one's fingernails. It's easier to just cover it up.

10. If it's early on in your dye job, stay out of the rain. And no, I'm not posting pictures.

Now you're prepared! I hope that you all make haste to your hairdresser and get that coveted shade of violet or turquoise or fuscia on your head right away.