The myth of pink hair

The myth of pink hair, that’s what my friend Penny calls it. It’s the common but misconception that to be creative one must look unabashedly artistic. Of course it’s more than just pink hair, it can be a lifestyle, you know, wild hair, crazy clothes, clove cigarettes, etc. The decorations change over the years, but it’s all about looking like a creative person.

Myth Buster: Creativity is not about looking artistic. Yes, artists are creative, but everyone is creative! Artists are just directing their creativity towards art whereas an accountant can direct their creativity towards accounting. Creativity can be directed towards any challenge in life, and therefore we could all use a little more creativity, right? Every job and every life needs creativity!

I have nothing against Pink Hair, in fact sometimes seeing a very self-expressing person can be fun, even inspiring. But looking like an artist or expressing yourself extravagantly with your clothes doesn’t necessarily mean you’re more creative than the other person. Many Pink Hair are trying to be creative by conforming to the stereotype of a creative person. Some Pink Hair people are thinking that if they look good, the rest will follow. Not necessarily! The thing is, Pink Hair doesn’t make you think more creatively, which is where creativity really begins. Where creativity ends, the point of it, is to think that it gives you ideas. Ideas that lead to solutions for your challenges: your life, your relationships or your career. Creativity is, after all, novelty that is useful, not just novelty.

I fell prey to the Pink Hair myth in my brief, traumatic, and very peak and valley television career. In 1980 I managed to land a classic “creative” job in television production after years of knocking on the door. I immediately stopped wearing standard business clothes and moved on to jeans and a well-worn corduroy jacket. Black was cool, so black t-shirts filled my closets. This became my uniform, which didn’t change much, and how creative is that? How was it for me as a creative person? Well, sometimes I would come up with great creative ideas and that would get me really excited. Other times I just couldn’t and had no thinking tools or techniques to get me out of my creative blocks, and that put me in the pit of depression. At the time I thought the blocks were because I wasn’t committed enough to the creative lifestyle, so I did my best to look and act more creative: I stopped shaving, drank more, and generally lived the rock and roll lifestyle. I enjoyed the music! I would often wake up hungover and still creatively blocked!

What I wish I knew then is that creativity is about how you think, not what you wear or how you look. Creativity can be taught, nurtured, encouraged, and enhanced, and the way to do that is by changing the way you think.

For example, if I had known that self-criticism was by far the biggest inhibitor to my creativity, I could have let the ideas flow while brainstorming. Instead of being in constant critique and analysis mode, I would just list them. Editing “as you go” is guaranteed to stop you in your tracks and make you cry in frustration. Having Pink Hair just meant to me that I had higher expectations of myself, so I was even tougher on my self-publishing than I would have otherwise! For those looking to get more creative, just defer judgment and get into a stream of list ideas!

If I had known how important it is to simply write down ideas, I would have invested in a $1.49 notebook and done it. Writing down ideas on your own can make a world of difference, just collecting the ideas you have all the time. Most of us assume that we will remember everything we think about. How can we when we have 65,000 thoughts a day? That is the average. Among those 65,000 thoughts are hidden ideas, or at least seeds of ideas that can be very useful to us. Start writing, revising, and developing them, and you’ll knock the pants off that nail-biting pink-haired creative down the aisle.

If I had known that alcohol and other mind-altering drugs just slow down your thinking instead of opening it up, I would have reduced that insanity. Instead, I could have walked more, breathed deeply, eaten healthier foods, and gotten plenty of rest; those things would have helped me think more creatively. If you want to stimulate your mind, and that’s a good idea, listen to classical instrumental music, or yes, jazz.

If I had known that my creative thinking would have been more productive if I had found ways to surprise myself, I would have sought out more new experiences. Experiences where you learn something are the stimulus your mind needs to help it make more new connections and feed you good ideas.

So if you really have to use Pink Hair, more power to you. But while you’re dyeing at the salon, make the decision to think more creatively, too: Be open, write down your ideas, and seek out new experiences. Then you will not only look more creative, you will be more creative.