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What is the hair color of a bald girl?
As I consider big changes in my life – new places to live, a new job, making new friends, maybe a new man – this is the question that keeps me up at night.
It’s such a trivial thing, but I have to be prepared. It comes up. When I get a new driver’s license, I may have to check a hair color box. If I sign up for online dating, I may have to identify my hair color, so that men with preferences can find me in a search. If I meet friends of friends at a bar, I have to be able to explain how they’ll know it’s me. Usually this is accomplished with a quick “I’ll be the fiery redhead in the Kelly green shirt.” Or, “Just look for the blonde with pink streaks in her hair.” Real people don't carry yellow roses on blind dates for the purpose of identification. They tell you their hair color.
Do I say I’ll be the one with three wiry hairs that spring from my forehead? Look for Squiggy’s twin sister, with hair squeezed into a point at the top of the head, minus the grease, and with a much sparser point, dishwater instead of jet black, and without the full head of hair behind it?
Is my hair the color of these three wiry hairs?
Is it the color of my eyebrows? My eyelashes? The random stray hair on my leg? That way, there’s still some authenticity in the response. Does it have to be scalp hair?
Is it the color of the wig I have to wear in the driver’s license photo? I can’t wear the scarf for a license; head coverings are not allowed in official identification photos. Trust me, I found this out the hard way. If I wear the fancy hair – the auburn, vacuum-seal, custom, natural hair piece made of fine European hair, do I identify myself as a red head? If I wear a cheap pink wig from the costume store, do I say my hair color is pink? Will they let me be photographed for an official identification in a pink wig?
Is it the color of my childhood hair? Until about fourth grade, I was a tow-headed blonde, with white, almost colorless hair. At the start of puberty, I had yellow, golden blonde hair. In middle school, my hair darkened to an ash color. When I was fourteen, I sprayed my ash-colored hair with a lightening product, which turned my hair orange, yellow, and then a platinum blonde only seen on strippers. Should I pick my favorite from among these hair colors?
Is it the color of my hair just before it fell out? The natural color or the enhanced highlighted version? With or without the perm? (Yes, perm. Remember when we all had perms? It's been that long since I had my own hair.)
Is it the color my hair might be if it hadn’t fallen out? I sometimes say that just the gray hairs fall out, which explains why every year I have fewer hairs than the year before. Aging.
In a world where hair color can be changed in a quick visit to a hair salon, with a home coloring kit, or a few spritzes or dabs of temporary hair color, in a world where women change their color on a whim, or hide their gray for years, why would we want to lock in to one hair color on a license? Why should we have to?
And in a world where a driver’s license lasts 10, 12, 15 years, how useful is that information?
Of course, this doesn’t answer my question. I live in a world where hair matters, and the revelation of hair color is the password to enter.
So back to my question: What is the hair color of a bald girl?
What do you think?
It’s such a trivial thing, but I have to be prepared. It comes up. When I get a new driver’s license, I may have to check a hair color box. If I sign up for online dating, I may have to identify my hair color, so that men with preferences can find me in a search. If I meet friends of friends at a bar, I have to be able to explain how they’ll know it’s me. Usually this is accomplished with a quick “I’ll be the fiery redhead in the Kelly green shirt.” Or, “Just look for the blonde with pink streaks in her hair.” Real people don't carry yellow roses on blind dates for the purpose of identification. They tell you their hair color.
Do I say I’ll be the one with three wiry hairs that spring from my forehead? Look for Squiggy’s twin sister, with hair squeezed into a point at the top of the head, minus the grease, and with a much sparser point, dishwater instead of jet black, and without the full head of hair behind it?
Is my hair the color of these three wiry hairs?
Is it the color of my eyebrows? My eyelashes? The random stray hair on my leg? That way, there’s still some authenticity in the response. Does it have to be scalp hair?
Is it the color of the wig I have to wear in the driver’s license photo? I can’t wear the scarf for a license; head coverings are not allowed in official identification photos. Trust me, I found this out the hard way. If I wear the fancy hair – the auburn, vacuum-seal, custom, natural hair piece made of fine European hair, do I identify myself as a red head? If I wear a cheap pink wig from the costume store, do I say my hair color is pink? Will they let me be photographed for an official identification in a pink wig?
Is it the color of my childhood hair? Until about fourth grade, I was a tow-headed blonde, with white, almost colorless hair. At the start of puberty, I had yellow, golden blonde hair. In middle school, my hair darkened to an ash color. When I was fourteen, I sprayed my ash-colored hair with a lightening product, which turned my hair orange, yellow, and then a platinum blonde only seen on strippers. Should I pick my favorite from among these hair colors?
Is it the color of my hair just before it fell out? The natural color or the enhanced highlighted version? With or without the perm? (Yes, perm. Remember when we all had perms? It's been that long since I had my own hair.)
Is it the color my hair might be if it hadn’t fallen out? I sometimes say that just the gray hairs fall out, which explains why every year I have fewer hairs than the year before. Aging.
In a world where hair color can be changed in a quick visit to a hair salon, with a home coloring kit, or a few spritzes or dabs of temporary hair color, in a world where women change their color on a whim, or hide their gray for years, why would we want to lock in to one hair color on a license? Why should we have to?
And in a world where a driver’s license lasts 10, 12, 15 years, how useful is that information?
Of course, this doesn’t answer my question. I live in a world where hair matters, and the revelation of hair color is the password to enter.
So back to my question: What is the hair color of a bald girl?
What do you think?
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Comment by Lyndsey Pitchford on July 1, 2009 at 12:45pm
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I guess I would still think of myself as a dark blonde (my natural colour) but probably because I do still have quite a bit of hair at the back, its just shaved coz I look stupid with huge patches of hair missing at the front.
If I was telling someone how to identify me I would probably go with the type of wig I was wearing/head scarf. As for identification photos, I only have my passport and that was taken when I had my natural hair. It expires next year though so I need to consider this...
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Comment by Diane on July 1, 2009 at 9:06pm
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I was in a similar situation when I renew my pasport 2 years ago..... I put brown hairs since this is (was?) my natural color when I lost my hairs... and technically, if my follicules were not challenge, my hairs would be that shade.... if the inflamation stops, the hairs can grow again, which is not the case for male pattern baldness as an exemple....so I wrote brown.... and wore my wig for the picture....
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Comment by Tallgirl on July 1, 2009 at 10:59pm
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My DL photo has my blond wig, but I wear my brunette and auburn wigs now, and store clerks do not even flinch. They look at the signature. I suppose the color of the "pubes" is what would identify you if you were roadkill, anyway. Wear the wig you want for the photo, and give the natural color on the licesce form...in case your head goes missing when next of kin have to identify you! Then they can identify your leg...or other...hairs!
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Comment by Dominique Cleopatra on July 2, 2009 at 9:47am
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The hair color of a bald woman: How about Nude?
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Comment by Mary on July 2, 2009 at 11:10am
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I like "Nude". I don't wear a wig, so that's the only choice for me. ( ;-)
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Comment by panuelo girl on July 2, 2009 at 1:35pm
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OMG Tallgirl you are so funny. I read your answer out loud to my mom over the phone. We laughed and laughed. Sandy - sad about the blue hair. If you wore a natural color wig they wouldn't make you remove it. If you dyed your hair blue they wouldn't make you remove it. So what it's blue. That kind of pisses me off a little.
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I've still been thinking about this and still have no deinitive answer. But I wanted to come back and say how much I admire you, the ones who could answer "nude" or "bald"...I am so much more comfortable with my hair loss now than ever before and yet these answers scare me a little and I'm not sure I could use them. Maybe one day. But thanks for sharing your answers and helping me see the possibilities.
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Thank you, Panuelo Girl. It took me over a year to get to the point of comfort I have now with being bald. If anyone is interested in trying it, all I can say is hold your head up, and smile and act as if everything is normal. Amazingly, that's what it has become for me - normal - and other people seem to accept it fine. For many women, not an option - I understand. This has just been my choice and my experience, for what it's worth.
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Comment by Misty Boggs on July 3, 2009 at 11:30am
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That is a really good question...You are so creative in your words! You should be a writer...lol I really dont know what color you would put...thats a hard one! I have not had to wear a wig just yet..but I guess I would say what color my wig was for the day! My hair is slowly falling out and when it gets to that point I'll have a better judgement. How are you?
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