It’s always interesting being in an airport as a person with pink hair — especially when I’m traveling for business.
Pink hair is a little more mainstream these days (curse you, Nicki Minaj), but it still gets attention.
Small children think I’m some kind of live-action muppet, which I enjoy very much.
TSA security officials look at the combination of the pink hair and the business jacket, and give me a puzzled smile. My fellow business travelers give me confused looks … mixed, sometimes, maybe with a tiny bit of jealousy as well.
Anything you do that’s visibly different will get people telling stories in their own heads. Pink hair seems to inspire stories about freedom from arbitrary rules, about navigating the economic changes of the 21st century, about 4-hour workweeks.
The 4-hour workweek part is bogus, but the rest of it has some merit.
I first dyed my hair pink in a kind of post-corporate stress disorder statement — I’m not going back there.
I had attitude about corporate when I was in that environment. Career-limiting kinds of attitude. And I’ve never particularly gotten over it.
I’m sure that I should have behaved myself better and been a little more politically astute. But I’ve never been all that good at that. Ah well.
When I first declared independence with my hair, I was a fledgling freelance copywriter with definite ideas about writing, content, business, and ethics.
Funnily enough, now I’m a reasonably seasoned business owner with definite ideas about writing,