That's A Horse Of A Different Color!

Ever since I was little, I've had this strange obsession with all things candy-colored. Maybe it's because I was born into the ferociously day-glo, hyper-vivid world of the 80s. I loved the tricolored deliciousness of cotton candy, bright pink and primary colored gum balls, Skittles, M&Ms, Froot Loops, (my favorite) Lucky Charms, My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite... just any number of colorful delights! Jem was probably my first role model, and there was enough fun and colorful hair and makeup between her Holograms and her nemeses, the Misfits, to satisfy any 80s child's need for some exaggerated New Wave aesthetics. One of my favorite movies when I was growing up was 'The Wizard of Oz'. When Dorothy lands in Oz, and the drab black and white landscape suddenly transforms into a technicolored dreamland, I think I was just as awed as she was. Every single time. And no part of the film best captured that excitement as my favorite inhabitant of the Emerald City: the Horse of a Different Color.

Its coat changed through every color of the visible light spectrum with each step it took. From red to violet to blue to green to yellow... right before your very eyes!! Horses sure as hell can't do that shit in Kansas! Or in New York City, for that matter. Magical! Oh, to have hair that could do the very same...!

It's no wonder, then, that first chance I got to experiment with candy-colored hair, I ran with it. It's been red, orange, yellow, blue, turquoise, purple, pink, and a few colors in between. One time (after a dye job gone astray), I had turquoise roots with purple ends. That was probably the first and only time that I've had more than one bright color in my hair.

(I'll be posting pics of my own hair's colorful past soon...but, in the meantime...)

While compiling photos for a portfolio assignment in school, a classmate mentioned some "rainbow-colored highlights" she'd come across online. I didn't see the photo, but I was so excited by the idea, that I immediately went home to look up rainbow-colored highlights of my own.

These are some of my favorite finds:

And my absolute personal favorite:

That last pic is of Victoria MacKenzie-Childs, a NY-based artist and jewelry designer (and inspiration for my colorful aging self of the future). Here is a link to a recent video interview about her polychromatic tresses. [via AdvancedStyle]

All this eye (hair?) candy is making me want to run for the Special Effects and Manic Panic aisle at my local Ricky's... Alas, I have to keep these black and white locks for a while longer, as I am going to be participating in a stylist friend's hair show... but more on that later, too!