Reddit - Interesting posts on Reddit, including what some doctors say about ME/CFS

People whose world has become so difficult, and small, that they express themselves and put a bit of their personality on show in an effortless way, every day, through their hair colour obviously don't have any health issues?

Sounds legit, Doc.

Anyhoo, get with the times. The kids have been dying their hair all kinds of colours the past decade since it was popularised in The Hunger Games and with the rise of Anime, pink hair went mainstream as did grey, blue, green, purple, half and half.
 
"The 'pink hair sign' is definitely something I’ve noticed."

"Yes definitely - usually have a streak of purple hair too."

"Blue hair is a frequent marker."

The doctors of Reddit have finally identified a biomarker that has eluded us for decades. But maybe pick a colour already, the stereotype and prejudice should at least be consistent. /s
The 'talking about a coloured hair sign' sign is a very useful marker for identifying lazy, misogynist and ableist doctors.
 
What's it supposed to be diagnostic of?
Such old hat. Haven't they heard of the blue rinse brigade?
I remember older women teachers at my school with blue hair in the 1950's and 60's. Occasionally pink rinses too.
It's the overlap with people who whine and rage about 'woke', whatever it means to them. Because everything is politics and everyone is 12.
 
My Nan went through a lilac hair phase. She discovered the purple toning shampoo for blonde/white hair. It was like a gateway drug. She started just once a week to “prevent brassy tones” and built up so much Phyllis from Coronation Street would have looked pale in comparison. When it got basically purple we had to get her to reduce it down!

Phyllis Pearce, Coronation St soap character and “blue rinse” icon
 

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From Facebook, I think about a study called 'Blue hair and the Blues'
A peer-reviewed study found a statistical correlation between dyeing hair in unnatural colors such as blue, green, and pink and higher rates of self-reported depression and past mental health struggles. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 14,000 online daters and found the association held even after controlling for age, sex, race, political beliefs, and other demographic factors.
The researchers stress the findings do not mean unnatural hair color causes mental illness. Rather, individuals already experiencing psychological distress may be more likely to adopt unconventional appearances. The study adds to a broader body of research exploring how self-expression and identity choices can sometimes reflect underlying emotional states.
Source: Psychreg Journal of Psychology

I suspect that it's also a marker of class and 'not fitting in with (conservative) societal expectations'. People going to expensive schools or working in an establishment law firm probably won't be allowed to have hair that is an unnatural colour.

People whose world has become so difficult, and small, that they express themselves and put a bit of their personality on show in an effortless way, every day, through their hair colour obviously don't have any health issues?
Well put.
 
From Facebook, I think about a study called 'Blue hair and the Blues'


I suspect that it's also a marker of class and 'not fitting in with (conservative) societal expectations'. People going to expensive schools or working in an establishment law firm probably won't be allowed to have hair that is an unnatural colour.


Well put.
Well imagine all of society making you feel an outsider so you embrace it through your hair.

Sadly I don’t have blue hair (it was teal when I was a non-disabled teen though) but I do put a disproportionate amount of effort into my hair on purpose. Because I wear it every day and it’s my one “thing” rather than clothes, make up, smoking, drinking, holidays, takeaways etc whatever others “treat” themselves to
 
My Nan was part of the blue-purple rinse set in her day, as were half her female friends. It was so common that it was unremarkable, the default even.

Not clear to me what that is supposed to signify about mental pathology or moral deviancy.

At least, not about the patient. Might have some explanatory value about the doctor invoking it to arbitrarily define pathology and deviancy.
 
Not clear to me what that is supposed to signify about mental pathology or moral deviancy.
I think it is considered a very derogatory and perjorative way to identify people with any combination of neurodivergence, LGBTQ, disabled with ME/LC/POTs/Fibromyalgia etc and concerned with social justice and things like climate change, as this seems to have disproportionately high numbers of people with interestingly coloured hair and garners an enormous amount of disbelief on any one of those dimensions by certain parts of the population.

Edit to add word
 
My Nan was part of the blue-purple rinse set in her day, as were half her female friends. It was so common that it was unremarkable, the default even.

Not clear to me what that is supposed to signify about mental pathology or moral deviancy.

At least, not about the patient. Might have some explanatory value about the doctor invoking it to arbitrarily define pathology and deviancy.
It doesn't. It signals non-conservatism, hence the huge overlap in opinions with people who hate, just HATE, 'woke', something no one has a coherent definition of. Medicine is a very conservative profession, physicians are in the upper economic ranks and work in bubbles as insulated, if not more, as investment bankers and high-ranking corporate attorneys.

It's definitely no coincidence that disabled people tend to not conform well with traditional social hierarchies, and that most in the bubble understand what's meant when someone talks about "blue-haired" patients. It's also no coincidence that most studies about neglected patient populations talk of marginalization and stigmatization. Someone is doing that discrimination, social and political structures that easily divide people between the deserving and the non-deserving. Disabled people are pretty much at the lowest rungs of society, about as popular as homeless people, and mostly for the same reasons: most of us can't work, so we don't, thus we are freeloaders, and deserving of contempt.
 
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