So, I just dyed my hair for the fourth time, and in the process, I began to think about how many musicians have dyed hair. Now, as a Black man with locs, I immediately think of rapper Lil Uzi Vert, who is known for his colorful hair. But there are other musicians with all types of hair textures who dye their hair just as frequently — Billie Eilish is known for her green roots and black ends, Bad Bunny has particularly fascinating hairstyles with an often-bleached widows-peak and I think I remember seeing Katy Perry with blue hair a few years ago. So colored hair is nothing new in music, but it also extends far beyond the industry.
Since I fancy both art and music, I decided to see just how frequently visual artists dye their hair, too. And I do not necessarily mean adding blonde highlights to light brunette hair, I mean really dyeing it — changing the color, going from dark brown to platinum blonde or going from black to bright green. I recall two famous artists with wild hair: Andy Warhol, whose platinum blonde bob-thing was incessantly discussed (and eventually discovered to be a wig), and his close friend Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose freeform locs I certainly adore but also represented Black freedom and naturalism.
Having documented these examples, we move onto why so many artists and musicians dye their locks. Despite claims that dyeing one’s hair is unprofessional, several celebrities dye their hair at the purportedly most professional events — say Hailey Bieber at the 2018 Met Gala — questioning how “unprofessional” it really is. For musicians and artists, dyeing hair is not only a form of self-expression, it also represents something deeper.
When a musician or artist dyes their hair, it is a form of art that reaches into their physical image. After all, fashion is a physical embodiment of art that one literally carries on their body. Naturally, with the connection between fashion, art and music, when a musician dyes their hair they are really creating a new piece of art, and one that is extremely personal. Their figure ties with their clothing, their hair ties with their face to create an assemblage of colors and shapes. Yes, they may dye their hair because it “looks cool”, but I believe “looking cool” is merely a colloquialism for “something artful” — in truth, a piece of art.
