Mohawks. Perms. Cotton-candy colored hair.

The mass of dead cells atop people’s heads have been a huge source of self expression for decades, and the way people wear it has been changing for just as long.

People nowadays look back and cringe at was once the height of style and in 10 years people may be looking at their undercuts or copious amounts of bleach in the way that some look back at frosted tips or big ‘80s hair.

Health teacher Susan Krippaehne remembers when she was a high school cheerleader in the ’70s.

“I wasn’t allowed to have long hair. The cheerleaders had a dress code but for our hair. I had a bob. I think then bobs were pretty common,” Krippaehne said. “But what we didn’t think was out there, you guys might look back and think that it was out there.”

Styles have changed through time, not only through length and general cut, but with the emergence of colors beyond the natural realm.

“I don’t recall that in the ‘60s, ’70s, ‘80s, that we were doing any color. I saw it starting in the 2000’s,” Krippaehne said.

Nowadays, one can see kids and adults alike with their tips or streaks or even whole head dyed one shade or another of the rainbow. Some people seem to think that people dye their hair outlandish colors for attention, but sophomore Carissa Vreugdenhil disagrees.

“It’s just a style. I think that’s mainly why people have hair like they do: they just think it’s cool,” Vreugdenhil said.

Vreugdenhil has pink streaks and describes her haircut as “inspired by Ramona Flowers,” a character from the movie “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”

“It hasn’t affected any of my relationships with people,” Vreugdenhil said. “Some people could being doing their hair for attention, but it’s not what I do.”

Katelyn Corrado, an esthetician and the owner of Salon Ish, a beauty salon in downtown Puyallup, explained how she believes that society has evolved into being more acceptable of mold-breaking styles.

“I think that hair color, specifically, has really progressed. You’ll see not just the ‘eccentric’ person with wild hair color, you’ll see people wanting to just put a splash of pink in their normal blond just for fun. I do think it’s more and more normal to see people with a more wild style,” Corrado said. “I think for a lot of people, depending on their profession, they are able to be a little more flexible with their style and they’re more confident to be able to portray that through their hair with crazy colors or cuts or whatever that may be. We have so many people that go through big changes in their lives and then want big changes in their hair or hair color.”

An example of that is Nick Pluskett, a senior at Rogers High School. Pluskett shaved his half of his head and half of his beard for ASB pictures this fall.

“In July we found out that my dad has cancer in his liver, kidneys, adrenal gland and satellites in his lungs,” Pluskett said. “Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do to treat it because of previous medical ailments. Since I can’t really do anything to ease his pain I shaved my hair off to support him and I read him his daily devotions over the phone.”

The trends and ways people wear and style their hair is constantly evolving. Hair is just a huge part of personal stylization.