People say that the key to happiness is looking on the bright side.
And it’s true.
That even a brief glimpse of something bright and colorful gives most of us an instant mood boost.
But what if finding the bright side was as simple as looking in the mirror?
For women with wildly colored hair, brightness is right on their heads.
And as permanent as the dye on their strands.
And people notice.
Whether high in the sky or captured in the bright day, bright colors stand out and draw us in.
This is Mane
and today we’re taking a look at how boldly colored hair really colors women’s worlds.
Stylist Shea Daspin has always loved bright colors
and always wanted to dye her hair a vivid hue.
but Shea’s dream of bright hair took a backseat when she thought doing so would
jeopardize her other dream of becoming a model.
Now, family members convinced her that wild hair color could ruin her ability to book gigs.
And when becoming a model didn’t quite pan out,
she decided to go for the bold dye job she now believes changed her life in ways she could’ve never expected.
Thank you so much, Shea for having us here today.
Unicorn Studios, it is beautiful,
It’s obviously colorful as hell.
Do you ever find yourself fighting against stereotypes—
whether it’s a positive thing or a negative thing?
The main thing that I think my parents were worried about was like
I wouldn’t be able to get a job or something,
because I have a lawyer dad and a stay-at-home mom.
They’re not from these creative backgrounds.
They thought that me dying my hair a bright color meant that I was unemployable.
Stereotypically, people with crazy colorful hair,
they’re punk rock kids, or they’re super rebellious
and they’re just there to mess everything up.
I got bullied and made fun of a lot for being super super tall.
When I got made fun of, I would just tell myself,
”they don’t know anything, I’m going to be a supermodel when I grow up."
So that’s how I got interested in fashion in the first place—
I saw modeling as this way above the bullying.
As I grew up, I saw that modeling didn’t quite fit my lifestyle.
You know, I grew up and I hit puberty and like got hips and stuff.
I was like "okay, so maybe modeling is not totally for me, but I still love fashion"
I spent all this time following these really interesting models,
I emulated their aesthetic growing up, and my mom always told me,
”if you want to be one of those models, you can’t dye your hair" or "you can’t get any tattoos"
I just never thought to do it because I had grown up thinking
I can’t do that, that would prohibit reaching my dreams.
When did color start playing an important role in your life?
I’ve always liked color.
I think when I was younger, all the inspiration I drew from magazines
and shows that I watched, they were always colorful but I never quite realized that.
And I think I really started to notice how much I liked color when I moved to New York
and I saw everyone was wearing black—
I feel like there’s something missing.
And I think that’s when I realized that I was missing color in my life
and I want to start incorporating it more to make up for the lack of color around me.
I don’t think I perfected my physical fashion style's aesthetic until I died my hair bright blue for the first time.
It really made me realized that this is what I’m supposed to be.
It sounds really cheesy, it makes me want to cry!
Oh! [Laughing]
I started working in fashion because I realized I love dressing people and playing dress up
and seeing how putting somebody in a new dress or a new suit or whatever it is,
I love seeing their reaction and seeing how they change— immediately change their perspective
on who they can be and where they can go
given what they’re wearing,
I thought that was so fascinating
and that’s where I am now, that’s where I get to use all of my color—
I get to put it on my head, I get to put it on my body.
It made people notice me more— people began to realize like,
”oh Shea’s work is colorful."
Yeah.
The whole time I’ve been styling, I just think you’re noticing it now because you see it
like right in front of your face.
It’s not prohibiting me from getting jobs, it’s in fact giving me more work, which is great.
I love that.
How often are you changing your hair color?
Well, I’ve been pink for a little bit over a year now.
Basically I went from bright blue and then I let the blue fade and I had this opalescent
kind of like iridescent unicorn thing.
And I was that for a while and then
maybe a month before my wedding last year, I went bubblegum pink.
So I was bubblegum pink for my wedding.
And then after the wedding, I was like, “this faded way too fast."
I don’t have time to keep redoing this every month.
So I went in the next time and I was like, “make it super saturated.”
And so I went like neon pink after that.
And that’s my new go to.
How did you feel when you finally saw yourself like that?
I was so excited, like I had dreamt of having hair like that for so long.
And I just never imagined I could ever have one like that.
And being able to see it actually on my head was very exciting.
Now that I get to carry the color with me everywhere I go,
I can now do all of these things I dreamt about earlier
but pushed to the side because I thought that would prohibit my dreams.
You carry it with you physically, but you carry it with you mentally as well.
And it makes interacting with people that much more pleasant.
And it makes your decisions that much more pleasant
and I think that’s really important.
With more and more women leaning into the look,
loud hair is everywhere.
And now it’s finally being valued for the happiness
and sense of individuality it brings to the women who rock it.
And honestly, I couldn’t think of a more positive statement to make.