Photographed by Erin Yamagata.

Pablo Picasso had his blue period. Holly Golightly had the mean reds. Kendall Jenner painted a wall in her home Baker-Miller pink because she heard that it was scientifically proven to soothe stress and suppress the appetite (which, while true, might not be the best reason to redecorate). Since as far back as 2000 BC, people have been exploring the connection between color and the human body, and the art of chromotherapy, or color therapy, as a way to treat and heal. Some call it pseudoscience — but that’s probably just because they’ve never met Roxie Darling, NYC’s coolest hair colorist-turned-intuitive healer.

New Yorkers already know Darling, the former lead colorist at Hairstory Studio who now works her magic out of Soho’s Suite Caroline salon, as the go-to girl for vivid Crayola color. So it makes perfect sense that the authority in all things technicolor recently decided to follow a vocational calling outside of the salon by becoming an intuitive color healer. (Yes, that’s a job a person can have.) Last September, Darling started channeling her expertise into a new project called Spectrum Experiment. The “experiment” involves Darling photographing her clientele beneath a spectrum of colors created with photography lighting in her own Brooklyn studio.

Colors have meaning and significance, and they can help you feel like you have the power to transform who you are — like dyeing your hair black after a traumatic breakup or going bleach-blonde to add some light into your life. Darling understands this, and she harnesses that therapeutic energy by encouraging people to go from natural brunette to bright blue, or bathe themselves in a medicinal combination of color and light. But Darling also explains that utilizing certain colors in any aspect of your life can inspire and create change, so if you’re not feeling an aura reading or trying to book an appointment in the colorist’s highly-coveted chair, makeup might just be the answer.

Ahead, we’ve teamed up with makeup artist Meredith Menchel and Darling herself to show exactly how you can make Darling’s transformative approach work in your own day-to-day life, without having to worry about root touch-ups or how many color-therapy photos on your Instagram feed is too many. (For what it’s worth, there’s no such thing.)

Welcome to MyIdentity. The road to owning your identity is rarely easy. In this yearlong program, we will celebrate that journey and explore how the choices we make on the outside reflect what we’re feeling on the inside — and the important role fashion and beauty play in helping people find and express who they are.