Blue hair!

The more I get out of my comfort zone, the more I realize how nieve I was to be in it in the first place it seems. Sometimes more knowledge leads to more acceptance. For instance, I was playing dress up with my kids the other day when Kara my 11 year old, putting on a bright blue wig, commented how she wanted to dye her hair like that wig. She is a very smart and creative girl, who's last thought in the world would be such a "rebellious look". So I went on to tell her that the people who did that were mostly teenagers who just wanted to be rebels, and I didn't really want her associating herself with those kind of people. To which she reasoned back (note, some would say this is talking back, to which I argue, if you want to train your child to be a sheep, then don't allow them to think or speak for themselves.) that if a parent didn't make a bigger deal about hair being colored then they do about their clothes being colored, the children probably wouldn't have needed to rebel, (and likely waited until they were old enough to not be intimidated and controlled by their parents,) but would have done it for just fun and expression at her age or even earlier. That got me thinking for more excuses of course, like toxins, cost and permanency of possibly a color you didn't intend (Like Ann of Green Gables). . .but it also made me question if those with blue hair were not being rebellious, but simply showing their love for color and creativity like my daughter. So, knowing how smart, balanced and non-rebellious the teens in my church are known for in the community, I decided to ask around. It seems, a lot of the kids from 6 and up have had crazy colored hair at one time or another! They aren't controlled and told they're "sinning", so the kids are free to try things, all while not arguing with their parents and having power struggles. Some of the parents were still many years later trying to figure out why their kids had to "rebel" in this way , and yet they were a close family, with no sign of rebellion other then that. So I talked to our minister Paul about it, and he told me that for years there has been a standing joke in the UU church, that "you can always tell a kid who's one of ours. . .they're the one's with the blue hair!" So, now I wonder, why did I or other parents, ever associate rebellious with blue hair? While the kids who leave home angry at controlling parents would probably at least sometimes dye their hair blue, just to spite their parents, I'm guessing, more often though a child or teen who is confident, creative and loved will feel that freedom and want to show (not as rebellion or independence) their vibrant self to the world. Considering the way just wearing that wig out in public seemed to make my daughter happy and more confident, maybe it is a good thing. Color therapy really does cool things to us, and as much as I think we should chose what color we want to wear in the morning based on our feelings and needs for the day, it might be a good thought  to consider a better or more healing/energizing color for our hair too. . . Live and learn huh.