Followers of American fashion model Kendall Jenner were wowed when she recently coloured her hair dusty purple; and English actress Maisie Williams broke away from her Game of Thrones look with dark blue hair.
This trend of displaying your locks in crazy colours has been gaining ground in Bengaluru as well.
While hair colour was popularised by celebrities and models in the past, now teenagers getting their hair coloured in different shades is the new fad. It is not entirely unusual to see people sporting colours like pink, red, and blue.
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Though parties, college fests and special occasions are the usual time to spring out new shades, many college-going girls and boys have started to have fun with these colours just for the attention. “I have coloured my hair blonde, but I would love to try other colours too. It’s fun dyeing your hair because you get noticed,” says Ruthu, studying P.U. in Jain College.
Many change the colouring as the trend changes. They not only change it to vibrant colours but also pick offbeat options like grey. Mimie, a second year degree student at Mount Carmel College, who has previously coloured her hair pink, says, “I have always loved pink so I just did it out of excitement.” Recently, she has changed the hair colour from pink to grey, though she says this time around it took her almost three months to decide.
Though the effects of hair colouring are visually spectacular, opinion is divided on how it impacts the hair. “It is quite harmful for hair because, before dyeing, the hair needs to be bleached and this leads to dryness,” says Raaj, a hairstylist at YLG Salon in R.T. Nagar.
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Asha Chethan, who works at a beautician training institute at Nelamangala, says, “We choose hair colour based on skin tones. The trend of experimenting with hair colour started around 2006. We've even seen the use of holi colours in the preparation of hair dyes. If the dye used is of good quality it does not harm the hair.”
Colour codex
*Colouring depends on the structure of the hair. Darker shades of dyes like dark brown or medium brown suit dark coloured hair.
*The cost of colouring depends on the length of the hair. Streaks cost around Rs. 300 to Rs. 500 and to colour full hair colour costs between Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 3,000.
*The colour can stay for a duration of five or six washes or six to eight months depending on the quality of the dye and how well it is maintained.