Hair Color & Passports
 

Okay, this may sound like a silly question...but...

lol

I change my hair color quite frequently. I have also decided that I want to dye my hair a different color that what I have currently while I'm over in England this May. However, I'm going to have my passport picture taken sometime soon, and my hair will obviously be a different color by May.

So, my question is will this present a problem while going through customs in England??

I somehow doubt it unless the hair color change has a stupenmdous effect on your overall facial features. My own passport picture was taken before I shaved my head. I've been back and forth to Europe and elsewhere many times since and have never been stopped, questioned, etc.

Oh, it won't matter. I wore a six-point rouge-tipped Mohawk for my photo, and changed my style a DOZEN times since then.

Well...the other reason I ask is because I wanted to do pink highlights.

Pink is a rather..unusual hair color. lol

Hi lilprincess, my last passport photo had my hair blonde, but when I travelled my hair was back to a brown color. I never had any problem. Guess immigration officers are use to people, especially women, constantly changing their hair.

Thanks LoveItaly! :) It's very true.

The people I called today about the passport treated me like I was retarded when I asked about my hair color being different than in the picture.

Fidel, that's awesome! ;) Mohawks are cool!

Who did you call????

I called two places actually. One was the courthouse in my hometown (I figured it'd be the easiest to get it there since it's local), and the other was the post office in the next closest town.

When I had my most recent passport pic taken last Nov., the woman told me to pull my hair back behind my ears--ears evidently have to be showing. Maybe they focus more on ears than hair color! :-)

lol! That's funny!

I thought about wearing my hair up in a ponytail, but I wasn't sure if they'd make me take it down because then it'd look really bad...lol

I just had my passport photo taken in early January....and my hair covers my ears. All the way. So maybe the photographer just thought you would look nice with your hair behind your ears?

Oh, and I DO plan to re-color my hair before I travel next week, but it will be just more of the same...no mohawks or pink for me!

K.

That is funny; obviously all the photographers are not on the same page. The Kinko lady said it was a new rule, about ears showing, but guess not everywhere! And perhaps, as you say, maybe she was just giving me advice as to my best look!

Grandmere, so are you saying that perhaps we should now be concerned of the colour of the hair IN our ears..??? ;)

Lilprincess : LOL! I know you mean well, but if I had been on the other end of your phone call, I have to admit I would've thought I was being had.

grandmere, about the ears ... my daughter's passport photo shows her ears. Her latest haircut doesn't. When she was leaving Cuba last week, the border officer looked at her photo, looked at her, looked at the photo again, and then asked her to pull her hair back to expose her ears. Then the officer stamped the passport so she could leave.

Ears as a distinctive spotting feature? Who would have known? My daughter was greatly relieved; she had enjoyed her week in Havana, but wasn't aiming to stay any longer.

Anselm

Mathieu (of croquebouche fame?), yuck, that is gross! :-)

AA, guess my local Kinko lady was not off base, after all!

Oui, Grandmere, c'set moi....of the croquembouche fame, not the gross ear-hair thing ! I said it in jest and didn't realise how gross it sounded until after I posted it. Sorry.

I think ears are a distinctive feature for some guys (like the Royal Family). But it's not a US Passport Agency rule, as I have shoulder-length long hair, and my ears aren't showing in my passport photo and I just used it to get a new one last summer. Maybe they looked at your ears and thought they were distinctive and should show? well, I wouldn't like that.

Some passport clerks can be real bureautic monsters, though, like petty civil servants who get full of themself because they know they can mess up your life. I remember my first passport, the lady at the passport agency almost didn't accept my photos just because one had a slightly more reddish tint in it than than the other. This wasn't my fault, it was just the photo printing, and it wasn't that noticeable even (and obviously you only have one on your passport, I guess they keep one on file). I don't know the rules now, but at that time, I think you didn't have to have a photo in color, B&W was acceptable. Luckily, she finally grudgingly said that she guess she would let me get my passport using those photos. I think she wanted me to bow down or something.

Pink isn't unusual in Europe. What always surprises me is that in the US we tend to think of the "unhair" colors as being something for the young. I have seen more middle-aged women in Europe with pink or lavender hair than I have young people. So go for the pink highlights, or any color you want. You won't be out of place and I'm sure nothing can surprise passport control.

<<Pink is a rather..unusual hair color>>

I don't know where you live, but here in Seattle it is quite common place. No one would blink an eye.