Dye Hard

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

When a media personality has dyed hair so often, or for so long, it becomes an integral part of their whole characterization.

Do not confuse with Dyeing for Your Art, which is when other physical characteristics are deliberately altered to fit the demands of the producers. Or the film series Die Hard.

Compare You Gotta Have Blue Hair, where the unusual hair colour isn't from dye.

Examples of Dye Hard include:


Anime and Manga

Music

  • Gwen Stefani
  • Two members of the band X Japan. Most notably is late guitarist hide, whose hair was always somewhere on the red-pink color spectrum (whether a streak of pink in blonde, variant red colors, or in his last years, short and bright pink). Drummer/pianist/bandleader Yoshiki started out with blonde hair, occasionally went brown, and now tends to go for a deep chestnut reddish brown - but never, ever black (the only time it has even been -close- to that in his adult life has been at/immediately after hide's funeral.)
  • Cyndi Lauper
  • P!nk (singer Alecia Moore), who always has dyed hair, but doesn't stick to a specific color. It's been blonde, bleached blond, pink, jet black...
  • Britney Spears - her hair has been dyed many colors but she is famous for being a blonde.
  • Elvis Presley - was actually a blond. No, seriously. A family member even had to blacken his roots with mascara before his funeral.
  • Deborah Harry, lead singer of the group Blondie, and was well known for her blond hair, hence the name of the group. When she decided to do some project on her own, she dyed her hair red either out of respect for not connecting it to the band (as she said) or because of some contractual obligation (which I suspect was the more likely reason). But she didn't dye her hair red the way we normally expect, I mean it was Fire Engine Red, as in red paint!
    • It's been a more natural red shortly after Blondie broke up, as well as auburn for her role in Videodrome.
  • Madonna - she's naturally brunette, and sometimes lets her hair grow out naturally when she's tired of dying it.
  • Lady Gaga, like Madonna, is also a natural brunette. Her hair is usually a random shade of blonde - she said the dye started because people confused her for Amy Winehouse.
  • Emilie Autumn is known for having pinkish-red hair, although the exact shade tends to change with each dye. Her hair is naturally blonde.
  • Tori Amos dyes her hair various shades of red (and very occasionally light brown). Although she has worn wigs in the past.
  • Bjork's natural hair color isn't actually black. It's dark brown.
  • Hayley Williams of Paramore has red hair that she usually dyes varying shades, from blond to orange to bright red, all the way down to crimson(as seen in the "Decode" video).
    • In fact, one of the Rock Band 2's loading screens for Paramore songs reveals that Hayley herself has forgotten what was the natural color of her hair from dyeing it so much.
  • Elton John, prior to his hair weave operation in 1992, was known for dying his hair in different colors, preferably a bright orange. He has said that his premature baldness had partly to do with having an accident with the dye.
  • Tarja Turunen and Tuomas Holopainen are both natural blondes, hard as it is to visualize.
    • As is Anette Olzon.
  • Gerard Way's (often never washed) black hair, except for his period of dyeing for his art by going platinum blond in order to "method act" as The Patient for The Black Parade.
    • As of album number four, he's a bright redhead.
    • He changed it. Now his hair is orangey blonde
  • Katy Perry is actually a blonde (and got a blonde look for 2019), but for most of her career she has sported jet black hair.
  • Farin Urlaub, one third of the German punk band Die Ärzte dyes his hair blond because "it was fashionable in the 80s." Also had a crimson phase during the 90s.
  • Richard Kruspe of Rammstein is a natural brunette, but now keeps dyeing it black. Flake Lorenz of the same band has been well known for dyeing his hair a variety of colors over the years, but has gone back to his natural brown.
  • Ashlee Simpson dyed her hair from its natural blond to a dark brunette, in order to distance herself from her sister's image. She eventually let it return to blond, and has since dyed a deep red.
  • Disturbed guitarist Dan Donegan early in the band's career had hair ranging from brown to orange to blue to indigo. He's stopped doing this.
  • Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke's hair color and style has changed so often that some fans use his hair to date photos. He bleached it in the early days of Radiohead, but stopped during the OK Computer era. He's naturally a dark ginger.
  • Florence Welch's hair has noticeably changed from brown in Kiss with a Fist video to fiery red.
  • Beyoncé Knowles of course.
  • Brazillian rock band Restart has the drummer Thomas, who is a natural brunette but permanently dyed his hair blonde. Also, the bassist Pe Lanza has recently dyed blonde streaks on the bottom part of his naturally-dark brown hair.
  • Trent Reznor has been dyeing his hair black for the length of his musical career (though there was a very brief period before With_Teeth came out that he did not): it's naturally a reddish brown.
  • Ariana Grande dyes her naturally dark hair to bright red as when she was cast as Cat in Victorious the producers noticed the entire cast had the same hair colour, and asked her to dye it.
  • Bernard Sumner, formerly of New Order and Joy Division, didn't start dyeing his hair until the mid 1980s or so. Nowadays, it's a blond-ish grey-ish colour, but in the very early days of New Order as well as in Joy Division, he had dark hair.
  • David Bowie is naturally a dark blond, but as part of establishing a distinctive look for his Ziggy Stardust character in 1972 he dyed his hair very red. Though he dropped that persona in 1973, he kept his hair predominantly red through 1976 and characters such as Thomas Jerome Newton and The Thin White Duke.
  • Lux Interior of seminal punkabilly band the Cramps was naturally blonde, but dyed his hair black for almost all of his adult life.
  • Lights is naturally a dirty blonde, she dyes her hair darker, often to a jet-black color.
  • The members of BTS are famously fond of the hair dye, even for K Pop standards, cycling from their natural dark hair, to blonde, to red, to gray, to blue and pink and other extravagant bubblegum colors. They change their hair color so often, fans had charted their numerous dye jobs. From all the members, V has probably some of the most iconic hair colors, of which the most famous is the half blonde half pink job for the video of "IDOL".

Video Games

  • Miki Hoshii from The Idolmaster games is depicted as a blond in around 90% of the official art and a majority of the fan-arts, but she is naturally brown-haired. It is a great plot point in her alternate route in the game.

Web Comics

  • Susan in El Goonish Shive dyes her blonde hair dark blue[1] to distance herself from her father's mistress. Later, her hair turns that color permanently due to her awakening at least partially because it has become part of her identity.

Western Animation

Real Life

  • Dennis Rodman's creepy hairdo gets first place.
    • It even ported to his appearance in the video game NBA Hangtime, where the player can actually choose which hair color Rodman will play with.
  • Billie Piper
  • Reese Witherspoon is known for playing blonde characters, but she's actually a brunette.
  • Jean Harlow
  • Marilyn Monroe, who was naturally a brunette.
  • Lucille Ball
    • Conversely, Vivian Vance ("Ethel") was a natural redhead.
  • Male example: Vic Reeves of the Reeves and Mortimer comedy duo. Original color: Blond. Once had to stop dyeing his hair to convince people that his new son was his own
  • Winona Ryder
  • Olivia Wilde is a natural blonde, but typically has her hair dyed brown.
  • Gillian Anderson - although a natural blond, she became famous as a redhead and the image has stuck.
  • Molly Ringwald, a famous redhead, dyed it that way after an agent advised her it was a good color to get her attention in the film industry. It worked.
  • Helen Slater, normally dark-haired, dyed her hair for the film Supergirl and hasn't look back since.
  • Margarita Carmen Cansino went from brunette to redhead when her studio basically Anglicized her into being Rita Hayworth. Oddly enough it was treated as being a big deal when soon-to-be-ex-husband Orson Welles made her dye her hair blonde for The Lady From Shanghai, so maybe everyone had forgotten she wasn't a natural redhead either.
  • Iconic fashion designer Vivienne Westwood has bright orange-red hair, which she dyes to maintain its shade (she's 70 years old, and would probably be at least partially grey if it weren't for the dye).
  • Greg Ayres, a popular anime voice actor, has a habit of constantly dying his hair. To the point where there was a joke about it in the first (and only) American Anime Awards ceremony and con employees have had a betting pool about what color his hair would be on at least one occasion. He himself joked about it on the Chrono Crusade DVD Commentary: "Look, I finally have the same hair color as the character I'm playing! I knew if I kept my hair purple long enough, it would happen"
  • Uma Thurman is actually a brunette, but has her hair bleached in most of her roles.
  • Dita Von Teese dyes her hair black, and she does it herself.
  • Similarly, redhead Cassandra Peterson dyes her hair black for her far more famous persona Elvira, when she doesn't use a wig instead.
  • James Marsters, who supposedly had issues after he stopped playing Spike and went back to his natural brown hair.
  • Mad Men's Christina Hendricks is a natural blonde but has been dyeing her hair red since she was 10.
  • Michael Jordan has to shave his head multiple times a week, seeing as his being bald is how the world knows him. Granted, he'd probably never grow it out anyway, but imagine him with even a bit of fuzz on top and think if he'd still be as marketable.
    • An interview stated he shaved his head because he would get mobbed every time he would get a haircut at local barber shops.
  • Professional wrestler Jeff Hardy is pretty much the personification of this Trope, with his wacky hair coloring leading to his oft-used nickname: The Rainbow-Haired Warrior.
    • Subverted recently in that he has cut his hair short and dyed it ordinary brown with a blond streak. The normalcy of it is still shocking as everyone has gotten used to him being blue-haired.
    • Jeff's not the only wrestler with this. Not a lot of people know that The Undertaker, JBL, CM Punk, and Christy Hemme are all naturally blonde (Undertaker is questionable as he's more strawberry-blonde, but close enough). It's a bit of a joke that all the blondes in wrestling are bottled and all the real blondes dye their hair something else.
  • Ashley Tisdale had blonde hair as Sharpay in the High School Musical series. With her first long layoff from the films in 2009, she's gone back to her natural dark auburn hair color.
  • Lucy Lawless is a natural blond, but everyone thinks of her as the brown-haired Xena. Additionally, during the character's first appearances on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, her hair was dyed black.
  • Speaking of Xena, Renee O'Connor, most well known for playing her partner Gabrielle, is blond, and dyed her hair red for the show.
  • Meryl Streep is a natural (light) brunette, but outside of certain film roles she has had blonde hair for over thirty years.
  • Marz Gurl dyes her hair blue, but tends to have some trouble keeping it that way.
    • Also from the internet, Obscurus Lupa is known for her red hair, but early videos show her with her natural blonde.
  • The Undertaker, known for having black hair, is actually a red-head.
  • Angelina Jolie's hair is naturally a dark blonde. Can anyone imagine Angelina Jolie blonde?
  • Katie McGrath of Merlin, practically the poster girl for Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette is naturally dark blonde.
  • Brazilian actress Camila Morgado is a natural blonde, but usually dyes her hair red.
  • Cate Blanchett has forgotten what her actual hair color is; she's usually seen with blonde, strawberry blonde or red hair.
  • Lauren Bacall was a natural brunette who dyed her hair red as a career move.
  • Jennifer Aniston's hair is naturally a honey-light brown shade, apparently, but since Friends has gone through most shades of blonde. Lisa Kudrow is also a natural brunette, but is known as a blonde.
  • Nicole Kidman, another natural redhead, often dyes her hair for movie roles, though fans generally agree that she's much more beautiful with red hair.
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar, best known for playing the blonde Buffy the Vampire Slayer, actually has brown hair and frequently played brunette characters during her early career. She also started off Buffy with slightly darker hair, and got progressively blonder with the seasons.
  • Leighton Meester of Gossip Girl is a real-life blonde but dyes her hair darker- nearly all the characters she's ever played are brunettes.
  • Kari Byron of MythBusters.
  • Amy Adams is actually blonde but famously dyes her hair red (as seen in Enchanted, The Fighter, The Muppets and so on).
  • Emma Stone is known for her red hair, but her natural color is actually blonde (not the bleached blond she has in The Amazing Spider-Man, though).
  • On a Disney Channel alumni note, blonde Emily Osment recently dyed her hair Shiny Midnight Black, while brunette Demi Lovato attempted (unsuccessfully) to go as a redhead.
  • Claudia Schiffer has become a household image as a golden-blonde Nordic, yet her natural hair [dead link] is a honey-like shade, between a dark-blond and a light-brown. She had also been dyed red for some time.
  • Former WWE Diva Maryse was naturally a brunette before she bleached her hair blonde.
  • Ditto for fellow former WWE Divas Torrie Wilson and Jillian Hall.
  • WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler began his WWE career as Spirit Squad member Nicky (he was a brunet then). Since then, he bleached his hair blond (except for a few months in 2011 when he was a brunet).
  • Brittany Murphy was a natural brunette; however, she got most of her more famous roles after she dyed her hair blonde. (Clueless and Girl, Interrupted notwithstanding.)
  • Science presenter on The BBC, Dr. Alice Roberts used to be notorious for dyeing her hair every possible shade of red or orange, but it seems that with her shows now involving a lot of filming in remote locations, it became too much of a hassle and she doesn't bother anymore.
  • Hair dye has become a staple part of fashion during the 2010s, so it's nowhere near as unusual to see girls and guys alike rocking wild neon combinations as it used to be. Some of this stems from the general popularity of battle shounen and "seasonal" anime (mostly isekai and romcom titles) that have continued the general wild hair color designs that's been a thing since the mid-1990s. Around the same time, some have been making dye truly sexy by dyeing their armpit and especially pubic hair.
  1. ↑ represented by black with blue highlights in color strips
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