Let's put our hands together for the very funny, the very talented Ms.
Diamante Ortiz you guys, let her hear it
Ok, I'm not Beyoncé but hello everyone.
Wicked nervous
Ever since I was 12 I always asked my mom this question: "Mom, can I please
have purple hair?" And I would always get the same response "Wait until you're
older." So I saw this as a definite maybe, so one day I just had enough of the same
old reply so I came up with another question: "How old?" and she says "Well, you
have to give some time and thought into it and until you're 16 then maybe we
could talk about this." So then I'm like okay, so fast-forward to my 16th birthday
last year where I did nothing at all except ask my mom this question: "Mom, can
I please have purple hair?" and she said "Well, you've given it some thought and you
probably wrote it 40 times in your journal, so yes you can have purple hair
as your birthday present." And in that moment it was like the combination like
fourth of July fireworks and I want to do that dance like in Napoleon Dynamite
where it's just like and it was amazing and we worked out the logistics so I
would get my purple hair the first weekend before school started so I would
come in with like a whole new head of hair and a whole new me and it'd be
really awesome. And I get to the place and my hair appointment is at 12:00 but
I come in at 11:30. It's just pre-hair excitement I just
made that thing, and I see my hairstylist and I only talked to him over the phone
and I didn't like see him in person so I see him and he has blue hair so I'm
thinking "Okay, I'm in good hands." And during the process you have to
bleach your hair first and then put the purple dye in, so they put all this
aluminum foil in for two hours, so I end up looking like a satellite dish and I
could get like HBO and like maybe Pandora, and then they wash out the hair
and then they towel dry it, so after they towel dry it I go from the washing
station back to the salon chair and I take off the towel and in that moment I
am blonde and in that moment I actually don't see myself. I see my sister and I
have two sisters one of my mom's side and one of my dad's side and my sister
on my mom's side has blonde hair and her and I we both look really like similar.
We have similar facial features and everything the only difference is that
she has blonde hair and now I did too and it was weird
because when I looked in the mirror I saw her and I didn't want to be her. Not
saying I don't love my sister, I love my sister to death, she is like the most
amazing person ever right up there with my mom and dad and, I was just freaking
out because it was an out-of-body experience because it wasn't me. As I was
aspiring to be someone else, I was copying someone else and it was weird
and my hairstylist saw how freaked out I was so he was like "Okay, we're gonna put
the purple dye on, just breathe in and out, do you need a paper bag?" I was like
"No I'm fine let's just get this purple on." So then they finally put the purple
dye in and from 2 o'clock to 6 o'clock I finally have my purple hair and I'm
finally completely complacent and happy with it and my mom takes 40 pictures as
she's doing right now, like it's the combination of prom and
graduation and she's probably like "Mira que preciosa, es muy bella." I love you mom. And it's
finally me I finally saw myself the way I want to be seen and I could show
people how I want to be seen rather than a perception of how they want to see me
just like a weird girl but now I'm weird girl with purple hair so it's,
So then the next day I go to my sister's house in the Bronx and I didn't tell her
that was getting purple hair so I knock on the door first ever and then she
opens the door and she's like "Hello—" and she's speechless for about 10 minutes
and then she has three kids so I have two nephews in one niece, five-year-old
four-year-old, and one-year-old, and the four-year-old has the first reaction and
he says and I quote it I kid you not "Is anyone gonna love you like that?" but
then my five-year-old nephew says "Don't worry Mante (that's my nickname), I love you like that." And
then my one-year-old niece just goes "Haaaa" like I'm probably a My Little Pony
in her head or something. And then my sister finally comes around and has her
reaction she's like "Oh wow, you have purple hair. Mom must really trust you at
that age I could only get blonde hair so you're like two years ahead of where I
was and it was." It was really weird and like thinking about it to this day I
didn't really think much about it, it's just like okay it's purple hair, it's
gonna turn black anyway. And I think I answered like my own like
thought where it's high school and it's my time to actually have purple hair
because I know when I get older I'm gonna go off to college and be more
professional and start wearing grey clothes like corporate America and my
mom actually trusted me enough to express myself and actually be who I
want to be, not how others would perceive me as what they wanted me to be as, and
it was something that I never fully realized until I look in the mirror
every day, and my sister taught me that and of course I became the petting zoo
on Monday at school, and there was a line of people just touching it's like "Oh my
gosh you got purple hair? I thought it was a myth, you know, you can't really
trust these seven graders just like spreading rumors."
I was like was it amazing because in that moment I felt like it was actually me
and it reminds me of this S.E. Hinton quote: "You still have a lot of time to
figure out who you want to be" and I'm actually glad that I'm still figuring it
out with the purple hair. Thank you
Amazing! Diamante Ortiz you guys