These 5 Hair Color Obsessives Are Disrupting the Beauty World—One Dye Job at a Time

Since ancient times, humans have culled their resources—both natural and artificial—to alter their hair color. In 1300 B.C., Egyptians used dried henna leaves ground into a paste to tint strands a crimson color. In medieval times, a compendium on women’s medicine known as the Trotula instructed aspiring brunettes to brew pomegranate rinds and powdered oak apples together for that golden toffee hue. And following L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller’s creation of the first synthetic hair dye in 1907, the first half of the 20th century found Hollywood actresses like Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe going peroxide platinum for the silver screen. Now, thanks to the introduction of Technicolor television and the rise of Manic Panic, the pioneering line of acid-bright hair colors created by punk scene fixtures Tish and Snooky Bellomo in 1977, stars and civilians alike have developed a taste for the rainbow above the neck. And the streets of cities everywhere as evidence: When one’s hair color extends beyond the confines of blonde, brunette, or redhead and into candy-color territory, it becomes a high-octane accessory, instantly transforming a look and adding a whole new layer to a head-to-toe presentation.

Colorful Hair: Jender Anomie

For neon yellow-haired-and-browed Jender Anomie, dye jobs have always been a matter of cause and effect. “My personal style is the ‘chicken’ and my hair color ‘the egg,’ ” says the 26-year-old, who, fashion-wise, is largely inspired by British eccentrics—she’s currently musing on emerging designer Matty Bovan and his mother, Plum—and has a penchant for vivid colors, bold prints (’70s florals in particular), and the grandiose silhouettes of ball gowns and wedding dresses. “Any outfit that gets in the way of the guy who’s manspreading on the overground next to me is a big yes!” she says. Despite growing up in a small town in East Sussex, London, and attending a strict Catholic school, Anomie has been dyeing her hair supernaturally since she was a teenager. “In the early days, changing my hair was all about the reaction for me—I secretly loved to make my friends exclaim, ‘Wow,’ ” she explains. “[But] after a while, it became more about making people think. I like to provide a dissenting visual voice for all those who feel similarly chastised by societal norms.” It was four years ago that Anomie landed on her signature highlighter pen yellow, and since then, she’s kept it up meticulously, buying bleach and developer in bulk and touching up the roots and color once a month. “I think it creates this hyperreal Lichtenstein-type feminine character,” she explains of the effervescent hue, which she often plays up with shiny finger waves, graphic eyes, and a stamp of fuchsia or dark violet lipstick. “In cartoons or comics, people who are blonde are often represented with bright yellow hair. I like to buck people’s idea of feminine as passive, so there’s this element of the ‘typical blonde’ beige verses the dramatic cartoon version."

Colorful Hair: Lean Chihiro

Similarly, in Paris, 18-year-old rapper Lean Chihiro, who released her first EP, Let Me Go, earlier this year, has found herself coming of age with the help of synthetic dye. Inspired by the Kawaii aesthetic of Tokyo and Japanese pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, she went cotton candy pink two years ago. “It makes me feel like I’m an anime character,” says the French teenager, who also favors oversize hoodies, army-print cargo pants, and Kurt Cobain–esque round white sunglasses. And since that metamorphosis, her out-of-the-box hair color has become as much a part of her persona as her ferocious rhymes and pulsating tracks. “You should know that I’m a queen/ My hair is pink, my name is Lean,” she raps on the first verse of her bouncy, electronic-infused anthem “Free L (3L/LLL).” On Instagram, Chihiro’s hairstyles are constantly shape-shifting—she wears waist-grazing box braids, a cropped mane of beaded plaits, and fuzzy space buns with equal aplomb—but her saccharine base stays the same, save for gradated bursts of complementary pastels. And while Chihiro’s kaleidoscope hair packs its own punch, it’s all the more striking teamed with her vibrant ’90s streetwear getups. “My style is all about reflecting my mood and I love using my outfits to play with different shades and tones, too,” she explains. When asked if she’ll ever stray from her pièce de résistance dye job, her answer is simple. “The pink just fits,” she says. “[I’ll probably] keep it this way for the rest of my life."

Colorful Hair: Chardonnay

Chardonnay, a 22-year-old writer and stylist from London, has also caught the Manic Panic bug—and every day yields new colorful possibilities. “As someone who identifies as nonbinary, my style is a way of articulating who I am without words,” explains Chardonnay. “And now, dyeing my hair is just an extension to the way I dress myself.” Despite only having begun dabbling in hair color early this year, Chardonnay’s icy blonde bottle strands have already been saturated in pink, purple, red, and, most recently, orange pigments. The beauty of each new dye job, often accented by dark, grown-out roots, is that it introduces an entirely new color palette to experiment with. Sometimes it calls for coordination, says Chardonnay, framing an ice blue gaze with matching swathes of eyeshadow or tinted arches. And, in other instances, it’s all about a cool clash that further subverts the beholder’s expectations. This is, after all, an individual who can pull off snap clips fastened into peachy lengths, a lace-up corset, and JNCO-style wide-leg pants in one fell swoop. With a presentation that’s forever in flux, there’s really no telling what hue is next on the personal Pantone spectrum, but there is one constant: “I always trust my gut if I want to [do] something,” says Chardonnay. “My subconscious might say no, but my heart always says yes."

Colorful Hair: Shewit Rebeca Tesfagabreal

But while it’s easy to get seduced into dyeing your lengths as often as you swap out clothes, the reality is that constantly bleaching can take a toll on hair. That’s where wigs and hair extensions offer extraordinary solutions. Take, for example, Shewit Rebeca Tesfagabreal, a 21-year-old DJ making waves on the Stockholm nightclub scene by imbuing Swedish pop hits and hip-hop classics with sub genres such as Afrobeat and baile funk. “I’d always been afraid of changes when it came to my hair,” she explains. “But once I started to get more gigs, I wanted to have a more signature look when I perform.” And so, during a trip to Paris with friends earlier this year, she visited a few hair shops and bought colorful extensions, envisioning herself with a single, sleek Rapunzel-length braid saturated in or streaked with varying shades. “Now, it’s basically my go-to look when I deejay,” she explains, adding that her new hues have also supercharged her ’90s-leaning wardrobe—she recently paired an ultraviolet iteration of her serpentine plait with a matching bra top and striped sweatpants—and makeup bag, which is armed with pigments color-matched to her extensions.

Colorful Hair: Dizzy Fae

Rapid shade switch ups are proving just as critical to the career of up-and-coming R&B singer Dizzy Fae, who has craved color above the neck throughout her life. “In ninth grade, I wanted to dye my hair, but I [knew that it couldn’t] really handle that process, so I got an undercut and started dyeing it different colors because I could shave it off whenever,” explains the 19-year-old St. Paul, Minnesota, native. But, it wasn’t until Fae educated herself on protective styles such as box braids later in her teenage years that she began truly embracing shocking shades. And while dropping her first mixtape, Free Form, over the past year, Fae has served up an array of otherworldly woven styles, from canary yellow braids whipped into a high-slung, waist-grazing ponytail to shoulder-skimming slime-green braids, that have catapulted her aesthetic to a new directional dimension. “I pay more attention to the details of the full look and what colors do and don’t groove together,” explains Fae, who counts Missy Elliott and the Spice Girls as style icons. “I adore their spunkiness and confidence to be themselves 100 percent of the time with every look,” she says. And whether she’s wearing her hair natural or cast in neon braids, she’s subscribing to that same unbridled self-expression.

Far more than a fleeting trend, Day-Glo-hued dye jobs are transcending fantasy and percolating on the streets for reasons that go beyond eye candy. “When someone is reacting to me, they’re having an internal experience and reflecting on so much more than what I look like,” explains Anomie. “My hair is a shorthand way to say there’s no one quite like me.” In other words, the future of hair color is bolder—and brighter—than ever before. And, DIY or not, it won’t be boxed in.

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