Styling Outfits For Green Hair
In late October I decided to dye my hair green. I felt that I needed something different and that the lockdowns and the pandemic had caused a serious creativity block, a block of inspiration, and a very serious desire for change. Along with my sister and rather spontaneously we dyed each other’s hair from brown to green. My green hair was a new and exciting challenge to style for, a challenge I personally highly enjoyed. So, here are three different ways in which you can match your clothes to green hair.
The first principle to keep in mind when choosing the colors of your outfit is the context of each color in your overall color scheme. Since I’m styling for green hair I’ll start with green. Green can fit in many color schemes, such as pastels, cold colors, secondary colors, neon, and many more. We can apply this principle to any color and in many ways. As can be seen in the picture, my hair is a deep turquoise green, a jewel tone. Jewel tones are deep, rich, bold colors similar to those of actual jewels – turquoise, sapphire, amethyst, emerald, the list goes on. I chose a deep red which gave me a joyful Christmas-y feeling on this too-hot-for-November Friday, but you can apply this idea to a variety of different colors of the same family.
Finally, because I simply must add something to break away from the rather classy look created by the dress (it is, after all, from the 50’s) I chose to wear a pair of mismatched and particularly sentimental socks (the complementary pair is in my boyfriend Tom’s closet). I’ve been considering writing a post about how socks can make an outfit more interesting and unique for a while now, so if you’re interested I’ll be happy to hear from you in the comments below. The socks’ colors match the jewel tone color scheme – dark blue, electrifying green, and bright gray. I added platform shoes which remind me of Harley Quinn, shoes which I bought in London and am having a hard time figuring out who made them. If anyone has any ideas please share your insight with me.
I think that this year I, similarly to many others, had some very disorienting times, found myself in a creative block, and had to deal with a lot of anxiety and sadness. Which is exactly why I think it’s very important to make an effort and remember the special, good things that happened this year. I finished my master’s degree, I went to New York with my best friend, I visited museums, I designed sets and outfits for the stage and for the screen. And even though my grandmother passed away I’m glad I got to get to know her from postcards, letters, and photos from her childhood. I saw sides of her I’d never seen before. I’m choosing to be thankful for all the good and all the bad of 2020. I’m choosing to see this past year as an opportunity to learn, to develop new abilities and habits in order to deal with challenges and crises. And yes, dyeing my hair green is also a method for dealing with a lack of inspiration, it’s a challenge to work around and an opportunity for more fun times.
Another way I like to choose my outfits’ colors is complementary colors. Because my hair is already green I thought it fitting to wear a contrasting color – pink. Of course it’s not an exact science, nor does it have to be. There’s no need to pick an exact, contrasting color and any tone that’s pleasing to the eye and complementary to the turquoise hair would do. The colors I chose are pink, turquoise, black, and white, and I made sure they’d echo and repeat throughout the outfit. The green-turquoise hair is echoed in the mini-skirt. Black is repeated in the sunglasses, the shirt I’m wearing, and the pattern on the skirt. Pink features in the make-up in my eyes (this past year I’ve enjoyed using bold, colorful eyeshadow to add a certain zest to different outfits), in my metallic boots, and yes, in the star pattern on my socks. Last but not least, white features in my shirt and my socks.
I also love clashing patterns when I do my styling. With this outfit I started by picking a skirt that would go with my hair color. The skirt is black and turquoise plaid and due to this choice of colors I knew I would want to wear my pink boots. Next up was the shirt. The shirt has a psychedelic pattern that brings to mind the fashion of the 60’s which I love so dearly. The two patterns create a lot of visual clutter, which is why I went with socks with a slightly more subdued pattern (couldn’t resist something, after all!) – pink shining stars.
I must say this is one I’ll be coming back to even when my hair ceases to be green. I am absolutely addicted to outfits that pit clashing patterns against one another and I am totally in love with contrasting colors. The fact that this outfit does both makes me feel like it captures my essence.
Our last outfit for today is built around different textures. There’s no doubt in my mind that the safest way to style green hair is to make use of black – black won’t clash with green, it won’t steal the spotlight, and honestly it just makes everything much simpler. But an outfit can still be very interesting when it’s all black or white – or even monochrome – if we take a moment to think about textile and tactile design. Each fabric has its own texture, its own look, its own ‘hang’. Using lots of different layers and materials can make monochromatic outfits interesting and unique.
This time I started from the pants. These are high-waisted jeans with a very bold and interesting black and white zebra print. Their texture is rather rough and the print, along with the green hair, brings to mind punk fashion and culture. The next choice I made is the fringed black bralette which both echoed that same punk fashion and added another texture to the mix. I knew I’d want to layer it with a short crop top that would reveal part of the bralette (I know it says ‘Feminist’ in rather bold colors, but that’s me, I just love adding color so much) and in this case it’s a shirt I cut up myself. I finished the outfit off with fishnet socks which, layered over the jeans, added yet another texture, and then a pair of black, pleather platform shoes.
That’s all for today, folks. Now I’d like to hear from you – what do you think of my new hair color? Which color have you always wanted but never dared dye your hair? Which outfit did you like most? And, finally, has anyone else recently dyed their hair an interesting color?
For more fashion click here!
You’re more than welcome to contact me on Instagram or Facebook.
I’d absolutely love to hear from you about anything!
-Sapir-