Dyeing Your Hair

Intro

Have you ever dyed your hair? You probably threw caution to the wind, , went to your  hairdresser  and asked him to color your hair  fluorescent orange. No? You’re not alone. A lot of people think changing one’s hair color isn’t for them. It’s a big step, that’s for sure!

It must be hard to work as a hairdresser at a salon . It’s one thing to add  highlights  to someone’s hair, but to change all of it to another color is a big deal. If the person getting her hair dyed doesn’t like it, it’ll take a lot of work to get everything back to how it was before. That’s why it’s so important to know exactly what you want before the big day.

Find out what Marni has done to her hair and what Lily thinks of it in this English lesson about changing the way you look.

Dialogue

Lily: Why are you wearing that hat?
Marni: OK. Are you ready?

Lily: Yeah.
Marni: I just went to the salon  and I had my hair dyed!

Lily: Oh my gosh! You look great. Your hair is a lovely shade of fluorescent blue.
Marni: I know. I just wanted to do something crazy. I threw caution to the wind,  and my  hairdresser  just went for it.

Lily: Wow, she did a great job. I wish I could do that. I really wanted to get some purple  highlights . I have this office job and they have a  dress code . People are really   intolerant  about flying your freak flag around here.
Marni: Do they think that’s unprofessional  if you have that kind of hair color?

Lily: Yeah, you know.
  Marni: I don’t plan on having this forever, obviously, but for a little while, I thought it’d be fun.

Lily: I    salute  you, my friend. I think it’s a great choice.
Marni: Thanks!

Discussion

Lily wonders why Marni’s wearing a hat. Surprise! Marni dyed her hair blue. Not just blue, but  fluorescent  blue. It’s a really big change and she’s kind of excited. You have to be pretty brave to make such a big change in the way you look.

Even though Lily likes and compliments Marni’s hair, she doesn’t think she could do it herself. Unfortunately, Lily works in an office that has a   dress code . She knows that her boss is  intolerant  to crazy hair colors, so she doesn’t want to seem unprofessional  by dyeing hers. Lily seems disappointed by this fact and wishes she could really be herself at work.

Do you dye your hair? Have you ever dyed it an unusual color? What did you friends and family think? Should unusual hair colors be OK at all jobs?

Grammar Point

Contractions and Abbreviations

Marni dyed her hair because she thought “it’d be fun.” She uses a contraction.

Sometimes, we shorten or combine words by creating contractions. This is especially common in spoken English.

Usually, to make a contraction, you remove a letter or letters from a word and replace the letter(s) with an apostrophe (‘), as in when we shorten “He is feeling ill” to “He’s feeling ill.”
Some other common contractions include: aren’t for are not, can’t for cannot, he’ll for he will, and won’t for will not.

Marni uses the contraction it’d. This contraction is short for it would. She dyed her hair because she thought it would be fun.

Which is correct, “We’ll come to your party tomorrow,” or, “We’ve come to your party tomorrow”?