Summer of 2016– lots of people say it was the summer to be alive, and I agree. When I think about that summer, it takes me back to the first time I dyed my hair. I did it out of impulse; I didn’t have any inspiration back then.

My mom was fine with it because she was actually the one that brought it up. She was going to dye my sister’s hair blue and decided to ask me if I wanted mine dyed as well. Since my mom dyed her hair all the time she already had the color I wanted.

It was a very dark purple, and hardly noticeable. Ever since then, I have loved dying my hair. The following year I got highlights because it was trendy. I’d left it like that for about two years. Going into seventh grade, I really liked dark black hair and thought it would look good, so that’s what I went with.

Midway into seventh grade year, I thought it would be a good idea to cut my baby hairs into bangs. My mom was very upset and said it looked bad, and I agreed. So I full on sent it and got bangs. During that time I had seen a lot of girls on Instagram with bangs, that were really pulling it off, and it looked cute. When I got them I was so self-conscious and nervous for peoples reactions, but after the first week I had stopped caring. I started to feel a lot more confident.

Around January I started following this girl on Instagram, yovonnie.lou, and she had two strips of her hair in the front bleached. I had really liked it and wanted to try it out, but I never brought it up to my mom. 

That being even before I got my bangs. Summer 2019 rolls up, by then I had seen quite a bit of girls on Instagram with the bleach strips. Making me want to do it even more, I mentioned it to my mom. She told me in her opinion it wouldn’t look right because I had bangs. 

To bleach strips on the side with bangs in the middle, yeah I could picture it would look off. My mom looked up ideas and showed me a few, one being full half and half hair. Which I had thought of before, but was nervous about the damage it would do to my hair. I decided on a single strip on the left side with apart of my bangs bleached with it. My strip has been dyed many colors, mostly on accident. 

The first day of school it was pink/purple, due to me trying to lighten the blonde, with a colored shampoo. Then it was a blue/green for a couple of months, because we tried removing the pink/purple. It’s also been blonde again, sliver, light orange, dark orange, and now yellow. Let me tell you though out this year I have spent so much money on hair products, and dye.”Colorists must have their hands full if nearly 90 percent of women dye their hair…if you live in California, Florida or Texas, you’re likely to spend even more than that $55,000 figure. These states were ranked at the top of the survey’s ‘most expensive hair list’, with women’s monthly budgets topping $120.”- PRISMAX COSMETICS

2018 is also when my style started changing. I was getting into 70s styled stuff. On the more brown, beige spectrum of colored clothes. The thing is I didn’t go all out seven days because I was very insecure and cared about people’s opinions. My style has drastically changed from the beginning of last school year,and my confidence.  

From there on I had started exploring the fashion world. For a while I had like 70’s outfit but started branching out towards all sorts of styles. I like a lot of styles, and don’t think I have one specific style. One day I want to wear a pretty dress with my hair curled, then the next day I want to wear big baggy pants.

I love really dainty girly things like bedazzled/sparkle 2000s little shirts,and leopard print dresses. Also I like baggy pants, band tees etc. My style really does range out all over the place. From clothes, hair, jewelry, acessories, and nails, I love it all. 

At this point anything inspires me. I tend to thrift shop a lot, I try my best to shy away from fast fashion, “Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed.” – The Good Trade.

 I get some of my inspiration,clothing wise, from Instagram accounts like sickfits,shopzulema,radxruby,90ssclassy,barbiey2k,oanhdaqueen,celmatique,behwah,rojacereza,ultjhoney,igirl,enjajaja. All of these changes through the years really helped me find myself and the things I love. It also helped me build up a lot of self confidence.