Less of a sore thumb.

My hair isn´t blonde.

Is this ok?

YES!

After spending a good part of yesterday in a pharmacy digging through bins of ridiculously cheap (20 pesos!!!) shorts, I impulsively bought a box of hair dye. This pharmacy is on a "semi-sketchy" side of town in the middle of a fruit and veggie market, and while they have impressive sales on shorts and intimate apparel, the hair-dye section is not exactly expansive. So, of my three options (platinum blonde, jet black, and a moderate looking brown shade), I went with the "Macadamia Cafe" ...it worked.

My friend helped me dye it yesterday. She asked me several times if I regretted it, but... I really don´t! New hair is fun! I have never had too much of my identity wrapped up in being blonde and this is an easy change.

Having blonde hair is like walking around with a giant hat that screams: "HOLA SOY EXTRANJERA!!!!" 

All. 

 Day.

Long. 

I just got really sick of it. I still don´t look Mexican, but this actually has already helped quite a bit. Today when walking from my bus stop to the park  no one yelled anything at me. Not anything! It was amazing.

For a while, I got really excited about the idea that someone sitting behind me on the bus might think I was Mexican. Then I was like: "Since when do I care so much about the opinions of strangers?" I´m not really sure. It does feel out of character for me to change myself because of social norms and the opinions of people I´ve never met. I mean, I could get really deep with all of this and link it to my frustrations with cultural differences, maybe this is an attempt to fit in physically since I have such a different cultural mindset, blahblah whatever. But that´s just making way too big a deal out of this.I´d rather say: It´s hair, it grows back, and being impulsive is good sometimes :) Happy December 14th!