For a topic that can be splattered with any number of reds, greens and purples, school guidelines regarding students' hair color end up in a gray area.
While some local school districts have set up standards against brightly colored hair if it is disruptive to the educational learning process — an opinion echoed by most — it seems to depend largely on the community in which the school lies.
Though most schools don't see it as a problem, a few heads of colored hair now may be an inkling of things to come.
According to hair stylist Erin Cooper of Salt Lake City's Star 21 Salon, having hot pink hair is all the rage in Europe right now, on both men and women: High schools and junior highs are only now experiencing a trickle-down effect of sorts.
"Adults tend to want their color to be more subtle, but kids want it to look like it's colored. They want it bold," Cooper said, citing examples of teenagers who have had rich copper and gold colors dyed into their hair at the salon.
In some schools, brightly colored hair isn't necessarily a disruption, so districtwide it may be acceptable, according to Kathleen Christy, area director of the Salt Lake City School District.
Davis School District maintains in its dress and grooming expectations that "all students shall wear their hair in a clean and groomed manner" and "extreme hairstyles or colors are prohibited."
What is considered extreme, however, is difficult to pin down. Spiked Mohawks? Sure. Pink hair? Well, maybe.
"I've got kids with orange, green and strawberry hair. I have teachers who have gray hair and dye it black. Where do you draw the line?" asked James Andersen, principal at Salt Lake City's Horizonte Learning and Training Center, who likens colored hair to the long hair of the '60s.
In fact, the only time Andersen has ever had somebody come to him regarding hair color was when a teacher asked if he'd be opposed to her putting a blue streak in her hair.
"Other kids look at it, but if you have a good teacher doing his or her job, I don't think it's a distraction," Andersen said. "Let's pick our battles."
Another problem arises when deciding whether a student's choice in hair color is disruptive, which can imply several things. According to Granite School District policy compliance assistant Martin Bates, that would mean it catches the eye and is so distracting that a school or class can't function because of it.
"If everybody is jumping up and yelling and screaming and won't sit down because of the (person's) hair, then that's keeping the teacher from being able to teach the class," Bates said. "But it's been our experience that a person's hair color doesn't keep class from going on."
Jessica Kniffin, formerly a student of Highland High School and participating in home school this year, never had a teacher approach her once. And Kniffin's hair colors apparently change more frequently than the seasons. She's had blue, green, purple, yellow and orange hair, as well as all five colors at once. Pink is her current color of choice.
"I love colors," Kniffin, 17, said.
"Schools should let students dye their hair if they want to, but they do have control of you in many ways. If someone tells me I have to dye it back, I can agree with that. I wouldn't be happy, but I can understand why they'd want me to."
"Kids just like something extreme to show their individuality," said Lisa Brown of Shear Excellence. "Hair is so temporary. It's not important to a child's development."
"I have found some of those kids that have reached to the far limits of hair styles are the ones that are the most intelligent and the most interesting."
"People get used to it after a couple of minutes anyway," said John Madsen, senior class president at Brighton High School this year.
Madsen sports blue hair, which he colored for a wedding, adding a prominent black handprint on top once it was over. He's been coloring his hair since the ninth grade, enjoying the varied reactions he gets when he walks into restaurants.
"There's a lot worse things that people can be doing. It's just dyeing your hair. My dad helps me dye it sometimes."
Schools in the Jordan School District discourage bright hair color so strongly that even those gussying up their locks around Halloween are frowned upon, even if it's part of their costume, according to Jordan spokeswoman Melinda Colton.
"Now, is it appropriate at a football game? That's different," Colton said. "That's not a learning environment." As such, they only have one or two isolated cases a year, including one she remembers when a student was sent home for arriving one morning with green hair.
"When you do have kids (with colored hair), what you have is a kid or group of kids wishing to set themselves apart from the mainstream of the social atmosphere of the school, whatever the norm may be," said Mark Sowa, Bingham High School assistant principal.
"We don't have a lot of people out on the fringes of that norm. Most of our students are very well-behaved and attuned to what they should or should not be doing."
E-mail: dmoody@desnews.com