I wonder if people admire the freedom of creative expression as much as I do.

I grew up with that blond hair, blue eyes and light skin, nothing out of the ordinary. Honestly growing up I always tried my best to hide and blend in anyways so in a way, that worked out for me.

Once I made it to high school I played around with coloring my hair different blonds and browns and then some red pieces at some point. Towards the end of my high school days I decided to stand out a little bit and color my hair this dark almost blackish blue. I loved having dark hair, I feel like I turned into a different person.

In college I stuck to blond again and kept it like that, sticking back into the status quo of life.

Once I moved on from some bad friendships and some hard classes due to COVID happening I wanted to change things up.

Sadly, at that time I worked at a very professional job that only allowed natural hair colors, so I was out of luck. Then, after a while I switched jobs and they allowed all types of color and I knew that it was my time to shine.

I began with this bright platinum blond and purple roots and I loved it, but I wanted more color. Shortly after that I went full blue, with this striking dark root and I felt like my old self again.

I kept that for a while and kept retouching that blue into brighter and brighter blues. Then I did a whole change and colored the top half of my hair this dark black and underneath was this ombre of blue and purple. I went crazy for it; I liked the bold colors that peaked through from the black slightly. Coloring my hair in my way represented me and who I was as a person. I will always love colored hair and it will always be a part of me. But sometimes you have to make hard decisions that make you sad but it is for good reasons.

As I began my current job, I came into it with the black, purple, and blue hair, but then made the professional decision to color it this brown and golden color. It made me feel like I was stepping away from the color fun and made that harsh decision to show my professional side alongside my hair.

I miss it a lot, mainly because those colors were my comfort, doing those vibrant random colors made me feel like my true self.

My mom when she first had me and my older brothers she had this short spiked hair that she did all the colors of the rainbow. I always loved seeing those pictures of her hot pink hair, I guess in some way it made me feel like I was following my mom in her footsteps.

I will never see colored hair as unprofessional, because the best lawyer in the state could walk in with hot pink hair, and win more cases then anyone in the room. Colored hair does not take away from someone’s expertise and talent. I think it just shows that you should look deeper into who someone is as a person before you judge them at first glance. I wish more high paying professional jobs had people with colored hair working for them.

I think that it would be a great thing to show off more creativity and uniqueness in the world.

Color brings happiness and joy, and by having people walk around supporting that I think would change the attitudes people choose to take with them as they walk out into the world.

I love the freedom that comes with creativity, the freedom of expression, it is wonderfully beautiful.

Whether it is art, tattoos, piercings, ceramics, music, dance, hair; all creativity is beautiful.

Sarah Lawson is a staff reporter for The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News; she can be reached at slawson@oakdaleleader.com.