By Jasmine Hsieh
The Scene staff
Sarah Ball is a funky-haired Forest Park student who stands out on campus.
“Everyone seems to like it, and even if they don’t remember my name, they know I’m the girl with the crazy colors in her hair,” she said.
Ball, 26, is a psychology and education major. She wants to show that college students are not just small parts in a production line, but individuals with a right to self-expression.
Along with tattoos and piercings, Ball expresses herself by dying her hair with a different color scheme every two or three weeks.
“I think that we, as a new generation, aren’t interested in being pigeonholed by the artificial boundaries anymore,” she said. “I believe it’s a refreshing evolution that our society desperately needs.”
Ball said comments about her hair at Forest Park are overwhelmingly positive.
“She’s extremely independent and very much for equal rights,” said friend Andrea Nering, 26, a mechanical engineering major who is taking an English class with Ball. “I love her hair dye. It suits her personality.”
Ball’s dyeing process takes about six hours. She starts by bleaching strips with a dust-free bleach mixed with a 30-volume developer, a lightening agent. After 30 minutes, she washes, rinses and dries her hair.
The next step is to add a variety of semi-permanent colors, such as pink, turquoise and blue. Then Ball washes, rinses and dries her hair again.
Finally, she adds a permanent dark-plum-brown color all over her hair to create purple highlights.
“I really like her hair dyes,” said general transfer student Migena Shtembari, 19, who works with Ball in the Academic Support Center. “It’s multiple-colored, nice-looking and stylish.”
Ball dyed her hair for the first time in high school, which turned out to be a big disaster.
“I was going through a Goth phase and wanted to dye my hair black,” she said.
Ball had used poor-quality hair dye from a grocery store, which was problem No. 1, and she found out black is too hard to remove. She damaged her hair badly and had to pay $200 to get it fixed at a salon.
Ball didn’t dye her hair again until a few years ago, when her brother and his then-girlfriend, Britney Moore, attended a hair-styling school together and used her as a guinea pig. She was fascinated by their wild experiments.
“One day, (Ball) just came to me and said ‘I’ve always wanted teal,’” said Moore, 24, a licensed cosmetologist who is Ball’s best friend today. “Let’s do it,” Moore responded.
Ball loves bright, vibrant colors. At one point, she wanted to combine hot pink, purple and teal, and Moore made it happen.
“It took a lot of trust on her part,” Moore said.
Ball’s hair has caused problems at work. After a week of working at a retail store, the manager — who hadn’t mentioned any hair restrictions — suddenly told her she couldn’t have unnatural coloring.
Ball said some employers use rules, regulations and training programs to try to prevent employees from expressing themselves. She wholeheartedly disapproves.
“They’re just trying to make us into nice, neat little cogs for their machine,” she said. “But we are individuals. We have interesting thoughts and opinions that we want to share.”
Ball was born and reared in Louisville, Ky. She moved to St. Louis in February to attend Forest Park, where she receives compliments on her hair every day.
“I had five people come up to me since this morning already,” she said. “One of them said, ‘Your hair is just perfect!’”
Unlike other employers, Academic Support Center Manager Cynthia Jenkins has no problem with Ball’s hair colors.
“I like the fact that she has found a great way to express herself and feels comfortable doing so,” Jenkins said. “In fact, I always look forward to how her hair looks.”
Ball hopes that her hair colors will inspire more people to express themselves on campus and throughout society.
“Forest Park is a college that celebrates diversity,” she said. “So I’m happy to be a part of the community that welcomes my individuality.”