Full screen version   Back to Fashion Page   Back to Home Page   

January 17, 2006:    Fireheads, Red hair from hell.

I was at the University of Arizona recently and I noticed a new trend. They who are students are not so good with trends here in the desert, but they try, bless their hearts!

I saw fire red hair. Yes, I have seen many hair colors, as have we all. We’ve seen the Green hair, the green stripes, the white stripes, (which are extensions, by the way,) to get our hair white as in snow white, we have to coat it with a aint-like substance or add hair extensions that are white, again no one is THAT blond. And so, these young boys and girls have FIRE red hair. It is not like it used to be boomers, it is really bleached and filled in with that sort of neon hair color the youth is interested in and so likes to shock us with.  Also a few of our misguided sisters and brothers, boomers like us, whom for some reason, feel they will be identified as "edgy," or artists, are dying their hair the same neon colors of their daughters or sons.  (How embarrassing must that be to show up at a school function for your niece or nephew in some strange green striped hair and expect to be introduced to anyone they respect? OUCH!)

Do you know that there is a game played at malls by the youngsters, meaning the pre-teens to the 21-year-olds that involves us? Yes, I am told there is a game. They make "points," in the game every time they manage to shock one of us and get us to speak to them and react. And so Fire red is the new Goth black. Now, I love the Goths. The young people who display their angst for us to see instead of hiding it underneath Abercrombie and Fitch or worse, Joe’s jeans at $200 dollars a pop.  These people have the latest hairstyle from Jessica, Paris, or Lindsey, that they tagged Mom's Visa with!  Note here that to be a Paris or a Lindsey one should be the child of a rock star or singer, as is the case with Nicole Richie or the darling daughters collecting press pieces at this time, of Keith Richards.

I declare the Goths more honest…seeming to say: "Look at me!" "I HURT," "I don't think you guys are treating me or my world right!" The black clothes the Goths used to wear were functional as well. The color black with studs scared the faint of heart from the suburbs away so they could shop in peace, for example, at a mall. Also, it is well known in meta-physical circles that black "holds energy in," therefore keeping it for the wearer of black. Black keeps our energy in and we can stay strong that way, when we need to, I use it myself often for that reason. I confess, even today!  Such clothes as mourning attire are black and useful for this reason as well.

So, why red hair? Why bleach your ENTIRE head and make it Fire engine red? My guess? Attention. What do you think? I see it as a cry for attention AND a sort of lame, not so thought out, cry of angst such as the old Goths I loved so much, did for us. If our youth has fire engine hair, and many, many stood out that way to me, they must have a message there. Did some new band whose members "stand for something" dye his/her hair red? I doubt this. This is not often the reason for a trend that is so noticeable; after all, we all want to be different. I can only surmise that they want our attention.

It affects me in a variety of ways. I am sort of feeling a stop sign, as in a stop light at an intersection or a stop sign on the street. I am worried for the sheer lack of beauty in fire red hair, which is not so lovely as the old pink and even light green shades. What sort of make up will they wear? I think that heavy mascara will work in the evening, of course, but…they have ruined themselves for lipstick! Perhaps a new color of lipstick is called for?

Also, what happens when they want to wear vintage orange? One would have to be very careful not to turn out like a Christmas tree, no? It does have its limitations.

Besides all of that, it FRIES the hair! You young men and women, if you bleach your entire head of hair, which is naturally beautiful already, you will TORTURE it! If you put Fire Engine red on it, it must grow out or be, God forbid BLEACHED out! OUCH, that whole idea hurts my head to think about! And my fellow boomers, of which I am the end of the years we were born: Do not DO this, ok? Just walk away, slowly, walk away and don’t even THINK about it, ok? Fire engines are for kids, even IF you are suffering from a middle age crisis!