This fall, dyeing your hair unnatu­ral colors has become increasingly popular among Marlborough stu­dents, despite being against School rules. Students who dye their hair have been spoken to about and we at the UltraViolet believe they should fol­low these instructions.

We remember in our earlier days at Marlborough, dyeing your hair was strictly against the rules, and anyone who dyed her hair unnatural colors would get in trouble. According the the Student Handbook of Expecta­tions, students’ hair cannot be dyed artificial colors, such as green, pink, or blue. A handful of girls have been walking around campus with brightly colored hair, and even though the Ad­ministration has asked them to dye it back, many of these students have yet to change their hair color.

If we begin to collectively disre­gard rules that seem unimportant, it will set off a chain reaction of rule-breaking, and eventually girls will think it is okay to disregard more se­rious rules as well. In order for a set of rules or laws to work, they all have to be treated as valid; you should not be able to pick and choose the rules that you follow. Thus, we should respect the hair dye rule just as much as we respect other rules, like the Honor Code.

In addition, we agree with the rea­soning behind the rule. We think that unnatural-looking hair dye can look tacky and can damage your hair. While hair dye seems to be a “safe” way to be rebellious for many girls, we think that this gesture will actually end up hurting a girl’s reputation. As much as we all would like to believe that we are never judged based on our ap­pearances, it happens all the time, and trends such as hair dye could reflect poorly on our School because of a bad first impression and stereotypes. We already have had instances that jeopardize our local reputation. Over the years, our neighbors in Hancock Park have become frustrated with our less-than-vigilant driving and parking on the streets. Marlborough girls have also been caught smoking in the area surrounding the School.

Appearances aside, if a girl with unnaturally-dyed hair is given a de­merit for a uniform violation but re­fuses to change her hair color, then harsher consequences should follow. It is hard for students to understand how faculty and staff can justify giv­ing demerits for other offenses, like the new demerits for attitude, if no repercussions follow for students who break the rules.

All rules must be respected for Marlborough’s system to work, be­cause if we start letting dyed hair go under the radar, what rule will be ig­nored next? Even rules that seem triv­ial should be treated with respect so that we can justify our other rules.