Until I was about 13, I had virgin hair. My long black strands were shiny, healthy and only incurred slight damage from daily blowouts and the occasional hot curlers. But one day, on a whim, one of my older sisters suggested I get highlights. With the older-sister-knows-best mentality, I went for it – despite the fact that I knew my mother would be livid. She believed in going au naturel when it came to my hair color because she thought it made me look more Chinese and less Americanized.
I’ve been addicted to coloring my hair ever since. This summer alone I’ve gone from subtle highlights, to an all-over light brown, to a warm auburn brown, and now I’m as close to my natural hair color as I’ve ever been with a dark brown all-over (at-home) dye job. After so many years of abusing my once lustrous locks, I thought it was about time to (almost) go back to what my momma gave me. It also made me see that having my dark hair back narrowed my face and didn’t wash out my skin as much as my highlighted hair. That got me thinking about all the Asian actresses’ hairdos that I’ve envied in the past, especially Brenda Song‘s, and I realized a lot of these celebs, in my opinion, look better with darkened manes.
Brenda Song
Kelly Hu
Jamie Chung
Maggie Q
