DH got quoted by the NYT, which has made his day:

Sparky, that is seriously exciting!

I need a quick sanity check from Buffistas who are around tweens and teens more often than I am: kids who are considered "preps" don't dye their hair wacky colors like blue or purple, right?

(I'm working on a new GCS column, and have a letter from a cranky babybat about how her parents won't let her dye her hair black, only purple or blue, and that her parents think she's a PREP, OMG. Poor confused babybat.)

Odd colored hair is rebellion, so not likely to be preppy

But I don't see a lot of preppy kids in CA. Not even on the street.

Of course my sister who was very preppy since birth has bright pink ends on the back of her head. ( she is 40 now)

So that isn't helpful

yay for mac

and sympathies , Sheryl

I am wondering how one confuses preppy and goth. I am also wondering about being OK with purple hair or blue hair but drawing the line at black. Seems arbitrary to me.

Like, from 2001 to 2007, I think, I visited every year except maybe one.

So I moved here and you stopped coming. I SEE HOW IT IS.

That seemed odd to me too. Black is a hair color that is more or less found on people's heads naturally.... purple and blue not so much.

I accidentally dyed my hair purple once. It was awesome.

I accidentally dyed my hair purple once. It was awesome.

I am of the opinion that any circumstances that could lead to an accidental dye job are prima facie awesome.

I too find the colour thing odd. Is it because blue and purple are perky or something, while black is too Wednesday Addams?

That was my only thought - purple = fun, black = satanist, or something.

And I meant to be dying my hair, the box just lied to me completely. I sent my mother a picture because I KNEW she'd be furious (she is very anti-hair colors not found in nature) but lives thousands of miles from me, so her annoyance was just amusing. But the purple WAS pretty awesome.

I knew a girl in college who dyed her hair purple for most of the semester. At the end of the semester, when her parents were coming to visit, she tried to dye it back to its natural reddish brown color, and it ended up a dull copper color with streaks of green.

That was my only thought - purple = fun, black = satanist, or something.

That sounds about right. Oh, Jilli, there was the cutest babybat on my cruise -- if I had been closer to her at any point, I would have asked if she knows your site. She had this cute black lace sundress.

I woke up way too early this morning, after going to bed pretty early, and I would consider just going to work early, but I don't know what time the early shuttle leaves! Oh well.