It only takes one extreme haircut to totally reframe your perspective on hair. Five years ago, during her study-abroad semester at sea, Reanna Peters, the star of this week's episode of Hair Me Out, decided to take part in an ancient maritime tradition and shave her head while onboard the ship. The experience of trading her long blonde hair for a buzzcut was formative. The takeaway: Hair is just hair — you can chop it short, dye it a fun colour, and it just grows back.
Today, Peters's natural blonde hair has grown back, and after this past year — which saw over a year of quarantine and the loss of her grandmother — she's ready for another big transformation. This time, she wants to dye her hair pink.
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"Pink is a little out of my comfort zone because I associate it with being super girly, which I'm not," Peters explains, but adds that she's leaning into the discomfort, viewing it as an opportunity for a meaningful refresh. "My current look makes me feel just okay; I'm super used to it and I'm ready for a change. Life is too short. Also, I'm doing this as an ode to my late grandmother: She always wanted to do something fun with her hair, whether it was blue or pink, but she never got to do that, so I'm doing this in her honour."
For her blonde-to-pink colour change, Peters heads to Santa Monica's Tabb & Sparks Salon, where she meets hairstylist and colourist Toru Fujisaki. The four-hour process involves bleaching the hair, painting on pink dye (Fujisaki uses a custom blend of two different pink shades for dimension), toning, glossing for shine, and then styling.
In the end, Peters got exactly what she wanted with her pink hair: a fresh change and a confidence boost to boot. "I'm going to have to stay away from mirrors because I might be staring at myself just a little too much," she jokes. "I feel like I could cry right now, but I'm going to keep it together. This makes me feel alive, vibrant, and full of energy — I'm so happy I went for it."