For the previous few years, my depressive signs have had a agency grip on my life. I’ve tried remedy, treatment, meditation, and train, however nothing actually helped. So just a few months in the past, I made a decision to complement these practices with a mood-boosting magnificence change and dyed my honey-blonde hair pink.
My choice to dye my hair within the hopes that it will assist my psychological well being mimics the “quarantine makeovers” that dominated the early-pandemic magnificence dialog. As professionals informed Properly+Good again in 2020, the monotony that lockdown precipitated pushed many individuals to attempt one thing new with their magnificence routines, giving rise to excessive dye jobs and haircuts that allowed them to exhibit some sense of management throughout an in any other case unprecedented time.
Even in “precedented” instances, although, experimenting with a brand new look can have lasting results in your temper. “A giant hair change or different enhancements to our look very seemingly prompts the ‘joyful’ chemical substances in our brains, like serotonin and dopamine, which accounts for the raise in our spirits,” says Vivian Diller Ph.D., creator of “We additionally know that selection versus monotony can affect temper. It is why a ‘change of surroundings’ is usually beneficial to depressed folks. The mixture of adjusting one’s hairdo with a change of coloration—particularly one related to happiness—is prone to be uplifting.”
Associated Tales
For me, pink was the plain selection when making a serious hair change. It’s all the time been my favourite coloration, however I’d historically shied away from sporting it. Up to now, my anxiousness made me really feel like doing something that may make me “stand out” was merely not for me. However in recent times, I began experimenting with the colour once I was feeling low—a swipe of pink lipstick, a vibrant pink coat—and realized that it made me really feel unstoppable, assured, and daring.
“When somebody’s favourite coloration is pink, it exhibits that they’ve female, passionate, and playful qualities,” says Kim Jensen, a coloration skilled with Home of Color. “There are such a lot of various kinds of pink… Pastel pink tends to be extra soothing, female, and romantic, whereas scorching pink is often related to heightened emotion, confidence, and wanting to face out.”
With that in thoughts, I wished to attempt including one thing extra completely pink to my look within the hopes of reaping these confidence-boosting advantages each time I seemed within the mirror. It appears I used to be onto one thing: A 2020 examine discovered that pink was the colour most extremely related to pleasure, love, pleasure, and amusement, and in early 2021, The Guardian deemed pink dye jobs because the “statement-making hair development of the pandemic.”
I’ve had my vibrant mane for practically two months now, and I’ve extra confidence than ever earlier than. General, I really feel lots higher mood-wise than I did pre-dye-job. I beforehand averted leaving the home as a result of I had no motivation or power to go exterior, however lately I wish to get on the market and exhibit my colourful strands. I used to take a look at folks with pink hair and envy how cool and assured they seemed—now, I really feel like certainly one of them.
Whereas I can say from expertise {that a} contemporary pink hairdo can provide on the spot mood-boosting results, that doesn’t imply that it ought to take the place of different tried-and-tested psychological well being practices, like remedy and drugs (each of that are nonetheless part of my life). “Counting on a change of look to raise one’s temper is dangerous solely in that it is typically short-lived and may develop into habit-forming. If we consider that altering our seems to be is what makes us joyful, it might probably create a continuing want for change,” says Dr. Diller. “There isn’t any hurt to wanting to vary issues up from time to time, however our base of happiness must be broader and extra long-lasting than that.”
I’m undecided if my hair will keep pink endlessly, however proper now, it’s given me a robust push in the correct route towards feeling like the very best model of myself. It’s led me to rethink my self-care routine and taught me the significance of presenting myself in a method that makes me really feel good. So, for now, I’m going to take pleasure in my bubblegum hair, and proceed to seek out new methods to maintain these emotions up even when my pure coloration grows again.
Need much more magnificence intel from our editors? Comply with our Fineprint Instagram account) for must-know ideas and methods.
