19
Jan
Angry Asian Girls United: lion's daughter [or, why I dye my hair]
I used to be really self-conscious about my hair. As a kid, my hair was short, frizzy, and sun-bleached brown, and no matter what I did to it, I was never able to reach the smooth, long, glossy look that I thought was the Asian girl ideal. The color comes from my mother, who is hapa and mostly Filipin@, and the coarseness from my Chinese father. My friends used to ask my why my hair wasn’t black like theirs. I had a perpetual lion mane.
When I got to college, I started to dye my hair. Not all of it; just a streak of dark blue, barely noticeable in the winter months. But I knew it was there. As time passed, the colors got brighter and more vivid, and more of it began to appear. And for the first time, I began to like my hair.
I’ve been dyeing my hair for almost four years now. My mother asks when I’ll get rid of the color, but when I look in the mirror, I like what I see. Dyeing my hair gives me courage and agency. Whether it’s frizzy, lionish, or purple, no one can tell me what my hair ‘should’ look like as an Asian woman. And that’s the way it should be.
small things.
[submitted for a discussion on dyeing hair, aesthetics, and beauty standards imposed on asians by outside ‘others.’]
via angryasiangirlsunited
via theunicorn-princess
