Can someone explain to me this whole middle aged female celebs with Manic Panic hair thing, please?

Whenever I meet a female who constantly changes her hairstyle and/or color it's an immediate red flag for BPD. My Boss does this and she's batshit crazy! My Mother did too before she got her meds worked out.

[quote]I'm a hopeless geek am not hip to what's happening in the world

Why judge them if you know you're out of touch?

This hair has been on trend for a couple of years now, and it's worked its way into suburbs and the older generations as these things do. Its like the Rihanna bob ten years ago.

Blame it on Cindi Lauper. She started it.

From what I've observed in my female acquaintances, it happens in middle age because they're dying their hair anyway.

Most just keep the original color and try to pretend they're not going gray, a few decide that what the hell they might as well go blonde or red or purple, because they've always kind of wanted to but it was too much trouble earlier.

It’s a fad. I was the only one in my HS (in the late 90s) using Manic Panic. I felt like it was my only chance because after I graduated I would have to have natural hair color to get a job. I’m half surprised that suddenly all these years later it’s become an enormous trend, however on the other hand I think it’s surprising that more people haven’t been doing this sooner. It’s temporary, it’s a kind of fashion statement, and for most of human history we had no options whatsoever to change the color we were born with but now we can have the whole rainbow at once if we so choose and that’s worth taking advantage of.

But because it’s a fad it will probably disappear altogether soon enough as people decide that “mermaid” or “unicorn hair” is uncool. Love it or hate it, I wouldn’t worry about it.

Remember how 15 years ago men were wearing earrings? Now you never see that. This will be the same deal.

It's middle aged females in general doing it. These are the ones who back in the 80's made life for real punk rockers a living hell. Usually metal head chicks/burn outs or cheerleader types. Now it's completely acceptable, so they do it to try to be "hip" and "unique".

R1, whenever I meet a male who refers to women as female, its an immediate red flag for 4chan red pill stupidity.

Burnouts made life hell for punk rockers?

R6, so this is like "Geek Chic"? (The cool kids who used to pick on the nerds later wearing non-prescription horned rimmed glasses and nerdy clothes because nerd culture became mainstream?)

^Maybe so, OP. Both "trends" are tacky as shit.

What’s a burn out?

It is middle aged and also the 20 something "genderqueers nonbinary" do it, too - the types who want to be cool but aren't

People who do not understand style but want attention

I think a lot of people always wanted to do this, but because of the past societal constraints it was limited to a few rebels who were able to do whatever they want. Now, because of celebs, Instagram, the cultural revolution of the naughts, it has resurfaced. The people who missed out said fuck it, I’m having purple hair!

[quote]Blame it on Cindi Lauper. She started it.'

No, she didn't. Lauper was in her 30s when she dyed her hair, and she did it as part of her punk/rebel pop star persona. Plus, no disrespect to her, but she hasn't been culturally relevant since 1985. (I loved her to death but she was kind of a flash in the pan).

I guess what I'm saying is that her dying her hair happened too long ago to be of influence today and she was cut from a different cloth from the women who are doing it now, so wouldn't be their role model. She was a genuine rebel and punk; the middle aged women are doing it now looked like they were the kind of middle class conformists who would've made fun of the punks like Lauper back in the day, wouldn't have touched punk with a 10 foot pole and been too timid or shy to even consider dying their hair any color (even platinum).

R7 from my observation it's lower class ghetto/wigger guys that like to refer to women as "females."

IN my high school the burn outs were losers who listened to Ratt, KISS, led Zeppelin, black sabbath, Judas Priest, etc...Complete assholes like their conservative parents. Think redneck/white trash.. They hated punks/goths/new wavers.. This is mid late 80's suburbia. If you have weird colored hair and/or odd haircut, they would go apeshit. They usually picked on the weaker ones and called anyone who was weird, fags.. So yeah, fuck these middle aged trash and their "unique" colored hair.

Because they own their own bodies autonomously of men and can do whatever the fuck they want with them?

it's a good way to fuck up your hair.

In Australia, it tends to be middle-aged women, who 'go wild' and dye their fringes wild colours, mostly purple / mulberry etc.

The kids have flown the coup and they want to show the world how free spirited they are, but they all do the same thing.

R19 you mean like this?

See, that brings it to the point I remember, which was what Nana looked like after a trip to the beauty parlor circa 1961 or 62. Sometimes her otherwise by-then white hair would be blue, sometimes pink-y, sometimes purple. It wasn't meant to be, exactly (and never as colorful as the Dame's) but it was sort of freaky for a little kid with no other references like Cyndi Lauper. I mean, we had a color TV but no one's hair looked like that unless the set needed adjustments.

[quote]Because they own their own bodies autonomously of men and can do whatever the fuck they want with them?

Zzzzz...Zzzzzzzz...ZZzzzzz...

I used to think that male and female were adjectives and when referring to people, one should use “men” and “women”. After hearing so many people use “male” and “female” as nouns, I looked into it and this seems to be acceptable. Maybe there was a change in grammar rules? It still sounds wrong to me, so I only use “male” and “female” as adjectives.

Me too, r 23. Formerly, "female" and "male" were only used to describe non-human situations.

Now they are confused with "woman" and "man" quite often, so that people are used to being dehumanized.

Post-feminist females still need a device to warn strangers they aren't male.

It's easier to have coloured hair and wear a scarf than go to all the trouble and expense of wearing face paint.

That's very true R23 and R24. I have now even heard police officers and doctors use the terms "male", and "female" when they mean to say man or woman.

At first I thought this was from hearing a lot of black Americans say it or hearing it in hip hop songs, etc. but I suppose it could be that and what you are both claiming.

I thought I'd never say this but, r17 is a Frau right?!?! Lol... Must have colored hair and live in the suburbs. Has "gals night out" and drinks a ton of wine..

LOFL ..

I'm a 'mo from MO. and wouldn't dare try to speak for frauen, middle aged or otherwise. Chicks can be rather vicious.. as gawd is my witness 😉

Regarding use of female and male for our species, I find it runs in farming/Agricultural families. I think this is just what some grow up hearing, and parroting, rather than a 4Chan or "Redpill" type trend. It sounds awfully clinical to my ears, but I do not automatically pigeon hole a speaker into a class category for saying so.

Welcome back, AIKC /R28 Could have sworn you were outed as a writer's fantasy, but whatever. Howdy!

I like my straight up silver grey mop and wouldn't mess with it. I guess I already went through the green mohawk phase, but the comment about nana's hair made me smile. My gran always got the blue rinse.

OP, I'm with you, it looks incredibly immature and it seems to be becoming popular---but even moreso in the UK.

Awww R30. That's so sweet of you Liz. I mean lez, old or otherwise. Thanks hon. I'm sooo not a catfish but I like the idea of being a fantasy. Aldo Nova style. 😘

The middle aged women I know who do it, also did it in high school in the eighties. Then they had to get jobs. Now they can do it again so they do. They also realized in college that most straight guys don't go for purple hair. They changed to increase their mating opportunities. At 45 or 50 they no longer care so much about what the boys think. Some wanted to go green in high school but their parents wouldn't let them or they could only get ahold of food coloring. Now they can do what they like. My hair is red and hasn't gone white yet. When I do go white I might do those funky colors. From what I understand the white will make a good base for those colors. My friends with rainbow hair would bleach it first to get good vibrant colors.

It’s unacceptable. People should all be exactly the same-no variety. Everyone should be “appropriate” according to MY terms of what is okay. And anyone over 45 should just fade into the wallpaper and not be seen ever. How dare they?!

I don't care what color it is, just shampoo that shit! I'm sick of seeing greasy hair. "I wash it with plain water.", or, "I wash it with conditioner." What's up with this trend? GROSS.

R35 It's the no poo movement. They're like anti vaxxers with the whooping cough. They are convinced that shampoo is destroying everyone's hair. There's been at least one case of someone loosing their hair because they developed a fungal infection after giving up shampoo.

"Rose gold" is everyone's unique color right now.

I giggled while reading R16 with the OP shot of Mindy Cohn in mind’s eye

R36, the twist is, the same people will spend a small fortune on chemicals that they (mistakenly) think make their dirty hair less gross.

Clue: your sebum-coated scalp still stinks in the summer with your trashy Batiste spray or without it.

Jeez, it's only fucking HAIR, get over yourselves. What's the matter, some of your losing your own hair?!

What I can't stand are hipsters who constantly mine the past and act as if they discovered the fucking wheel. Everything these idiots do is totally unoriginal, from the music they listen to, the way they dress, their silly beards on men and 1960s/1970s hairstyles on women. Even their hobbies are from another era. Artisanal food?! WTF is that, really? Food my grandmother and great-grandparents (they owned a restaurant) used to make, IE: fresh and healthy food? There's nothing original or new about that. These idiots really need to STFU already.

R39 I use dry shampoo, but I was it for real as well. Dry shampoo is good people with oily hair to clean it up before you go out after work. It wasn't really intended as a long term replacement.

But I wash for real not was.

You wanna hear something funny, R35? That whole "no poo" thing started with the African-American community. What happened was that AA women started going natural a decade ago. Natural AA hair is dry to begin with and gets tangled and matted a lot easier than straight hair, so shampooing too much exacerbates these issues. Black women then decided to reduce their usage of shampoo. But they didn't go without shampoo. They still shampooed. It's just that every so often, instead of using shampoo to clean their hair, they used conditioner.

For some bizarre reason, white women discovered AA women talking about "no poo" on their hair care blogs, then lifted the concept from the black community without even understanding the context behind it. People roll their eyes about cultural appropriation not being a thing but this is one of the clearest (and funniest) examples of it, as white women started experiencing massive amounts of damage by foregoing shampoo altogether.

Shut Up CUUNNTT!!!! I was the trend setter and I did it in Suburbia. I LOOK and FEEL fantastic. Stop being jealous.

Why not...you're allowed to have more fun with your look when old, nowadays....and it gives a little zing! Mainly, though it's as r4 says. When you're young, you'd have to strip your hair color before applying dye...now, since it's already white or grey, might as well try it out! It's temporary, anyway.

I'd rather see the whimsical than the unbelievable. 80 with black hair is wholly weird.

Do men do this and why do you suppose not? Conformity seems to be a thing with men. That and gossip. Two men working on the apartment next door just told me everything I need to know about everyone in the building.

[quote]When you're young, you'd have to strip your hair color before applying dye...now, since it's already white or grey, might as well try it out! It's temporary, anyway.

Err, no that's not how hair dye works, especially if you want the color the last beyond a week of shampooing.

Peroxide makes the hair ready to absorb the color, it makes microscopic 'holes' in each hair shaft to absorb the color.

That means any color, including the Manic Panic type dyes can get into the hair, not just the surface. Even if your hair is white or grey, it still needs to be prepared before it can absorb the color. Some peoples hair isn't porous enough to absorb even temp dyes, it needs to be prepped first.

I remember when stupid Kelly Ripa was going on about her blue dyed hair coming off on everything. I have no idea what her colorist used, but any hair dye color is not supposed to rub off, unless a chalk 'dye' was used and that is always temporary. It can rub or flake off.

Middle aged people, just like the very old or the young can do whatever they like with their hair no explanation needed. I dont do it, but Idgaf if anyone else does.

They're trying to be edgy but all I can see is Mrs. Slocombe.

Miss Mindy Cohn can do whatever she wants, OP!

[quote]They're trying to be edgy but all I can see is Mrs. Slocombe.

We all know she dyed her hair but did she dye her pussy as well?

Lol R50, true. Old ladies did have blue and purple rinses back in the seventies.

Saw a teal blue one inch fringe on a blond precision bob. Fantastic. Just the ends.

It's interesting that people at work (mostly women) feel more comfortable doing different stuff with their hair after I went and re-shaved my hair into a Mohawk.. I didn't do it for any kind of attention or "uniqueness", it's just easy to take care of and I can cut it myself. I usually politely walk away when they start trying to "bond" with me. And I know for a fact a few of these were high school trash who were mean and vicious to people like me back then.

P.S. Hey A.I.K.C....

Speaking of trash.....ugh

No, I can't explain it. Or more like, if I tried, the flood of pixels would bring DL to a halt.

^ Oh dear, TOO much face-furniture!

“No poo” sounds repulsive.

R59 I'm repulsed by it.

The idea of dry shampoo is disgusting to me!

[quote]They changed to increase their mating opportunities.

What a dippy thing to say.

The "no poo" thing has been around for more than 10 years. I first came across in on long (and I mean long) hair forum--white women referring to it as "preening". So I don't buy that this is an example of cultural appropriation.

As for middle-aged women and hair color. Basically, your natural hair starts to look like crap--it's going grey and not nicely. If you're menopausal, it's also thinning. So, it's likely you're doing something to it anyway just so it doesn't look completely awful. The bright hues are a way of having fun with what's frankly a tedious and depressing process of trying to hold it together when you're getting old.

And, yeah, it is a bit of a throwback to the '70s/80s, which is when all these women were young.

[quote]The "no poo" thing has been around for more than 10 years. I first came across in on long (and I mean long) hair forum--white women referring to it as "preening". So I don't buy that this is an example of cultural appropriation.

Yeah, no shit it's been around for more than 10 years. Black women started going as early as 2000; that's when the whole "no poo" thing got started, and they were the ones that coined the phrase. (See Nappturality forum post from 2004; this was the first and still the biggest natural black haircare forums on the internet.)

^ BTW, you're lying when you refer to "preening" as what's currently referred to as no poo. No poo is about washing your hair with conditioner. Preening has nothing to do with avoiding shampoo and using conditioner. It's about transferring sebum from the scalp to the rest of the hair. Why lie?

R64 Actually no, Lorraine Massey is responsible for starting the no poo movement. She opened her first Devachan salon in the early 90's, I used to get my hair cut there. Her Curly Girl Handbook was published in 2001.

R57

I read her thread and think it went to her head. In the worst way.

I like the different colors but I hate the greasy hair. A shitty home-dye job and dirty, smelly hair in the summer heat? Looks like mental illness.

R29, uneducated black people have been using "male" and "females" to describe "men and women" for decades. Listen here at about 39 minutes in where he plays a song and talks about how, "A lotta FEMALES used to run around at parties to this song with no shoes on!"

Saw a lady like this today with a bright blue streak. Her teenage daughter looked somewhat embarrassed when she noticed me looking. I thought it looked ok, but it really screamed 'look at me' and then I understood.

We disappear to the world after age 40 unless we're being obnoxious, whining, or are just naturally stunning. Manic panic keeps that fade out a little at bay.

whut-EV-uh! Ah do whut I WANT!!!

You watch springer and then quote it here? I'm embarrassed for you, R71.

I thought it was just women but it’s men too, particularly gay men

Attention seeking for lesser civilians

R65, the preening is part of the no shampoo movement, which, as may be clear to you now, was not something started by black women. As I said, I came across it (and preening) in a long hair forum--the idea being that shampoo strips your hair of protective oils and preening helps distribute those oils and strengthens the hair. Conditioner-only is simply a variant of the whole thing. Hard-core types don't use anything on their hair, which sounds insanely itchy to me.

Believe it or not, white women don't actually spend all their time looking for ways to rob black women of their culture--well, unless they're named "Kardashian."

[quote]We disappear to the world after age 40 unless we're being obnoxious, whining, or are just naturally stunning. Manic panic keeps that fade out a little at bay.

Unattractive people will always be ignored, they've been ignored since they were teens, why should getting older be any different for them? Attractive people, that's a whole other story, people will never stop looking, especially if they took care of themselves and haven't ruined their looks with junk food, drugs, smoking and drinking.

I don't think all people magically start being ignored at 40. Where do some of you get this bullshit..

My older sister is 52, she doesn't have one wrinkle on her face, is very attractive, still has all her thick wavy hair and is always hit on by women and men! No, she hasn't had any work done. I hang with her a lot, we usually go shopping together and try to meet for dinner at least three times a month. It's hilarious watching the people just stare and flirt with her. She looks a bit like Charlize Theron, but not as skinny and with much better hair. One time a woman asked for her autograph!

My sister gets a kick out of all the attention because she's happily married with grown children. She laughs that it must be hell for an actual famous person! We have great genes in our family, no one either side of our family looks their actual age. Our late maternal grandfather had a full head of hair when he died in his 90s.

Don't assume everyone becomes invisible at a certain age, it's simply not true.

Why are you so defensive R76?

[quote]We disappear to the world after age 40 unless we're being obnoxious, whining, or are just naturally stunning. Manic panic keeps that fade out a little at bay.

That's a wise observation. Plus, as you age, your features tend to recede, so "statement" hair colors and "statement" glasses become attractive options for some.

It wasn't long ago that middle-age frump began at 40 (Jean Stapleton and Ed Asner were both in their 40s when they started playing Edith Bunker and Lou Grant). I think it's an attempt to combat frumpiness with some cheer and a bit of a middle finger to old age.

What is the issue?

OK, so everyone except R76's sister becomes invisible around 40. Massive eyeroll.

I guess you needed a trigger warning on your post, R70. FFS.

Interesting R69. I hadn't really noticed, but I never hear that sort of music really. I've lived in the states for roughly twenty years, but do not have any close black friends here either. Blacks in Britain do not particularly favour the terms.

R69 & r81 the first time I remember hearing an example of that was on the Salt N Pepa record called Tramp - maybe 1987? I thought it was a NY thing

[quote][R65], the preening is part of the no shampoo movement, which, as may be clear to you now, was not something started by black women.

Okay, okay. You win! You win! White women invented "no poo." Happy now, LOL?

As an aside, how pathetic is it that snowflakes like R65 are so triggered by the idea that they didn't invent something or start a trend that they're even fiercely defending their right to lay claim to a shitty hair care trend that results in hair loss? How pathetic.

R83, No, I'm triggered by being called a liar. Nice job of trying to SJW yourself out of this one.

The generation of old women that preceded this current crop of old women, when younger, had their hair "set" once a week or so at the beauty salon. They would not have their hair washed until their next appointment, prior to getting it styled again.

But that's not the same as thinking your dirty, stringy, smelly, and wholly unstyled hair is fashionable. That's new.

R76's sister is an 8 in Topeka! Why, someone even asked for her autograph, mistaking her for that actress in Monster, except Sis is a little hairier and heavier!

There is hope!

R73 How do you know that's not a lesbian?

Middle aged women loved this song a few years back...................

Wtf is that song I have never heard it