Why you should consider having blue hairs ...

The other day, I was in a workshop with Anna Ong, founder of "What's Your Story (huh)?". She asked: can you tell me about a time when you tried something new? As I was struggling to find a good example, my colleague Claudio suggested (by curiosity I guess): what is the story about your blue hairs?

Here it is. About 25 years ago, I was a software engineer working for an hardware vendor, selling development tools running on their UNIX servers. At that time, we used to wear formal suits and ties all the time. One day, I saw a presale engineer from a database vendor, coming in to do a demonstration of his product. He had a flashy pink mohawk ... and wear a suit, of course. I asked my colleague: have you seen him? He smiled at me because he knew the guy. Yes, it's impressive, isn't it? But he's presale, I argued, and he's meeting customers? My colleague replied: He can afford it: he's very good at what he does.

During all these years, I never dare to colour my hairs, even in standard brown as they became more grey a few years ago. I still lacked the confidence of showing up in front of my customers with colourful hairs, even with many years of experience in the data analytics space.

Last year (and this year too), with Covid, I was working from home, not meeting any customers outside daily video calls, with the camera often turned off.

So I decided to have it a go, first by having a few blue and pink highlights. After a few weeks, the colours started to merge into purple and then fade away. A few months later, I had another try with pink and green highlights, which ended with a beautiful turquoise blue when the two colours merged again after a few weeks. Encouraged by the experience, for my birthday, I decided to go with one single colour, blue: no more highlights, just full "royal blue".

Here is the result:

As I continued to deliver customer projects remotely in 2021, I started to turn my camera on. At first, nobody noticed. Then, I started to have some feedback from colleagues and customers who realised the blue wasn't a background effect: they loved it!

But what about meeting new customers? What would they think?

I believe there are two options: either they think I am "an original consultant" and / or that I know a few things about analytics, and they should listen to the solutions I would like to propose to them.

What about keeping my blue hairs during my next job interview? Yes, it works too. I did a full round of interviews face-to-face and virtually a few months ago, which led to my current position as Head of the Data Analytics practice at Sourced Group. Yes, the team values diversity and lives by our values ??.

What else do my blue hairs bring?

• My customers tend to appreciate the energy I provide to them, with my expertise in Analytics. I believe the blue hairs add a touch of personality, highlighting the innovative solutions I promote to them in the data analytics space, on the cloud.
• When I run in the evening, people notice the hairs: women might appreciate a little bit more than men, although I got thumb up from so many people, younger and older, with a big smile (we don't wear masks when doing "strenuous exercise" in Singapore). It brings joy and motivates me to run further.
• It's a conversation starter. When I enter into a restaurant, a shop, a mall, strangers will say (sometimes after thinking about it for a while): "love your hair!" and then we chat for a few minutes.
• If I may, to some extend, it strengthens my "role model" status among the younger generation, kids in particular. A few weeks back, a 5 years old kid told his mum: "look at the blue hairs!" with such astonishment in his face. I saluted him and his mum. He made my day. If I can inspire a younger generation to be bolder, I believe I would have been useful in this world.
• It suits my personality: I am an analytical person. In the insights scheme of colours, I lean heavily towards the "cool blue", looking at facts, data points and following a formal decision making process. Having blue hairs reflects who I am.

Thank you for reading. When will you try something new? Which colour do you think you are trending to? Do you plan to colour your hairs to highlight your personality?

I would love to hear from you. I wish you a colourful day!

#bluehair #analytics