I've never dyed my hair because I've just been so nervous about it.
I'm scared that something will go wrong.
What if it all falls out?
Or what if it just looks terrible, and I should've never dyed it?
What if this is the only color that I can pull off?
Hi, I'm Sharifa, and today I'll be dyeing my hair red.
So I have never dyed my hair before, mainly because I was just too nervous.
I wanted to do something drastic but not too drastic, like blonde.
I don't think I'm ready for that, yet,
although that'd be really cool.
So I feel like red was a good compromise.
It's a color that I feel would be flattering on me, hopefully.
Fingers crossed.
I'm going to be 30 in September, so I was just like, you know what, let's do this.
I've always wanted to, so why not?
Hey, Sharifa.
Welcome to Rob Peetoom.
I'm Sergio.
And I'm Linda.
So, what do you have in mind today?
So I want to do red hair,
but I wasn't really sure which kind of red I wanted, like an orangey-red or like a deeper red.
But Zendaya just recently colored her hair, and it's this beautiful, perfect vibrant red.
So yeah, that's exactly it.
We're going to lift your hair up first to get a lighter base, and then we can add your
bright red to it to make this vibrant one.
Yeah, are you ready?
I'm ready.
Then we are ready!
I really like my hair, actually.
I do feel it's a big part of my identity, but I feel like I've relied on it too much
as kind of a security blanket.
I feel like a lot of my confidence is tied to my hair.
I feel like in the last few years I've taken a lot of risks and I've gone out and pursued
things that I would've never done before.
I started a YouTube channel, which I never thought I would do.
I put myself out there in the public, which was really terrifying.
I started to do standup, another very terrifying thing.
Dyeing my hair, compared to all that,
it shouldn't be as scary.
It is, for some reason, scarier.
When I was in junior high school, I didn't know how to manage my hair.
It was really big, really frizzy.
I'd get a lot of mean comments about it.
And then in high school I kind of
learned to manage it and deal with it, and then I noticed that people would compliment
my hair a lot.
Since then, my confidence has been tied to that, and I guess a lot of validation has
been tied to my hair.
And now I just...
I want to do something because only I want to and not because of what anyone else thinks.
I feel like black hair is tied to South Asian identity a lot,
and definitely hearing the elders in my community growing up saying that, you know,
you should keep your hair black because that's what Bengali girls should have,
it suits brown girls better, and things like that.
I always heard that other colors won't suit my complexion and won't suit South Asian girls.
I think that's ridiculous.
Why can't we have any hair color that we want?
I'm hoping after I dye my hair red that people will like it.
I think they will because it'll be a change.
But at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter
as long as I like it.
I think I'm gonna feel really good.
I think I really need a change like this.
I think I'm most excited to play around with different makeup and clothes and colors that
would suit the red hair.
So here's the results of your hair.
What do you think about it?
Oh my god!
Oh my god, it's amazing.
It's so good.
I was imagining all sorts of terrible scenarios, but it came out exactly how I wanted it.
It's perfect.
Thank you.
I can't wait to play around with this.
It looks so good on you.
Thank you!
You're welcome.
I'm a redhead.
Oh my gosh.
I love my new hair.
I think it looks so amazing.
I can't believe the transformation.
I'm so excited to play around with it, to try new clothes and colors.
I'm really happy that I took this risk, and I'm so excited to take more.
And I hope this inspires other girls to take a risk and do something that you've wanted
to do, regardless of what community says, what anybody else says.
It came out way better than I thought it would.
I absolutely love it.
Thank you so much for watching.
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