Project Blue: One Week Later

A week ago at this very moment, some very indigo dye was being prepared for my hair.

The reasons for this were both many and few, and I have written about them here.

A week later, I’ve just come back from lunch at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, which as their door proclaims is my “new addiction.”

They know me there now.

“Hey, Blue!” the cashier exclaimed as I reached the front of the line.

“Your hair still looks awesome,” came from the kitchen.

All of this follows my 10 minute conversation with strangers while waiting in line. You may have guessed that the topic was blue hair.

This mother had just let her son get a mohawk, and he had used some temporary colors in the hair.

This blue is less temporary, however, it is fading around the edges.

Although the color is fading, the pace at which I’m meeting new people is not.

Old School

On Saturday night, we were at Murphy’s Pub, my favorite watering hole in Lubbock, celebrating the tavern’s third anniversary.

We had a great waiter, although his name now escapes me because I’m bad at names.

During a visit to the restroom, he had apparently queried my friends about my ability to take a joke. They said that I do, indeed, have a good sense of humor.

“You’re my boy, Blue!” I hear from across the bar as our new friend pays homage to the movie Old School.

What a Week

I’ve been called into classes as I walked down the hallway.

I’ve induced double takes and triple takes.

And I’ve had a good friend say he would have dyed his hair along with mine had I asked.

If there’s a teen-ager working in a business that I visit, chances are they’ll come talk to me about the hair.

“I can’t believe you have blue hair,” my wife said as I left for work today.

The Sociology of Blue

The funny thing is that I go to great lengths to avoid socially awkward situations.

But this has been a great learning adventure.

When I took Sociology 101 more than a decade ago, one of the assignments was to violate some social norm (but not law) and then chronicle your experiences.

No other college assignment — including my doctoral qualifying exams and dissertation — ever caused me so much anxiety.

I resist authority. I hate rules. But norms restrain me like iron chains.

And bright blue hair violates almost every norm. So to that extent, this has been like ethnography. I’ve learned by diving in and watching.

The Moral of the Story

And perhaps the single most valuable lesson is that there are a lot of people in the world who feel shackled by the rules of society. And they resent it.

“I wish I had the nerve to do that,” is probably the single most frequent comment that I’ve heard.

And that makes me a little sad.

You live once. Do it your way.

If you dye your hair blue, or red, or green … or if you get a mohawk or an inverse mohawk, people will stare. Some uncomfortably so.

But you’ll learn something about yourself, your society, and as I wrote last week, your friends.

And my friends and family continue to have been amazing.

And that makes me anything but blue.

Tagged as: blue