Streaker alert for hip tresses

As you walk down a college campus in Bengaluru, you find many college students sporting a new hair colour every other week or month. Hair dying has been a trend that never dies but with the new colours like pink, blue, purple and the colour-changing dyes that are in the market right now. Youngsters like to keep up with these trends and are always one step ahead of the next colour in fashion.

We talk to these girls from various institutions in the city, and find out what eggs them on to change their hair colour frequently. The 20-year-old, Nistha Sinha, a student at Christ University who draws her ‘hair-spiration’ from Katy Perry, Kylie Jenner and Nicki Minaj feels, “I take great care of my hair, so it is more than just a trend, my hair colour reflects my personality. I get it coloured on impulse. I pick up on trends like balayage, ombré, unicorn hair etc.”

Nistha elaborates on the trend that is emerging in her college, “The global style, highlights or the ombré are pretty common in the Christ Campus. Although not too many try bold colours like blue or pink like I did. This is because many courses like professional ones in BHM or BBA don’t allow hair colouring and are little stricter in terms of hair colour than arts or sciences,” she says.

Ponong Thai from Jyoti Nivas College finds herself greatly inspired by hair colour and styles of Korean celebs. She says, “I don’t mind spending a lot of money on my hair colour. Just the end results should be satisfying. I am a huge fan of K-pop so yeah they inspire my fashion as well,” Ponong adds. Obangnenla Longchar, studying at REVA University, prefers a light shade of blonde over a colour that stands out more but she thinks that “Pastel colours are so cute! They quirk up your whole look into super chic and make you stand out from the rest. All eyes are on you and your chic hair.”

A hairstylist from the city, Raphael Emileena talks about how this fascination is growing amongst youngsters, “Changing hair colour is an opportunity to express one’s individuality and youngsters have the urge to express themselves through that. Over the years, the spending power has increased in India and pocket-money has gone higher as a student enters college. Many students have more freedom to spend,” she adds. So how much do they spend on an average on such hair colour sessions? She says, “It starts from Rs 900  and can go upto Rs 12,000 to 15,000 per session, depending on the length and budget.”