Hair Stereotypes

Once You Go Black, You Never Go Back.
Like most teenagers I went through my phase of wanting crazy and eccentric colored hair. I am included in the 75% of women who color their hair (Harden). Now that that phase is over, and I am back to my original dirty blonde hair color, I began to wonder if other women had similar experiences to mine. Hair dying, especially in older women, can be a bit taboo. An estimated 50% of women over age 25 in the US dye their hair (shaw). So why is it so taboo? I believe that this is yet another example of societal expectations of women. While that is a very important and relevant topic, I decided to take a more factual and scientific route in my research. Box dye or professional? What’s the difference? Is it worth it? And overall, which is better?
I started my research with myself. I have had every hair color in the rainbow. I was the guinea pig for my cousin who is a cosmetologist, and I found myself switching hair colors around every six weeks. This is bad for obvious reasons. One being I completely destroyed my hair, and two, I thought I was good enough to do it myself. This led to the biggest mistake I’ve made in a long time. I

So I contacted local cosmetologist, Jessica Adams. Adams stated, “You will ruin your hair with box dye! Professional formulas of hair color don’t change but box dyes change their formula all the time. This leads to inconsistency in color and possibly harmful chemicals on your hair.” (Interview). Adams also told me she had many clients do the same thing I had done. She said, “Y’all think you’re smart and try to do it yourself and end up ruining your hair!” (interview). She also shared with me that around 60% of her clients come in regularly for hair color and of those 60% around 40% are over the age of 30 (interview). This tells me that the majority of people who visit this shop get their hair professionally dyed, but what about the people around