Manic Panic for Your Pubic Hair?

Ali Khradyar: Manic Panic for Your Pubic Hair?

Los Angeles based artist, Ali Kheradyar is “interested in the body and its potential to evoke action and thought”. Her 2011 photographic series, Dye, was based on her own research and experimentation with Betty Hair Dye, a European hair dye specifically designed to be safe for pubic hair. As an artist of Iranian heritage, Kheradyar’s relationship to the body is further complicated: “Elements are veiled yet revealed, while my tendency towards minimalism brings the body to the forefront”. She writes:

Aside from traditional colors, options include “sexy purple”, “malibu blue”, and “lucky green.” This work playfully engages aspects of painting and sculpture to identify and question our individual ritualized practices and unconventional concepts of beauty. I started asking a lot of questions: What was this practice about? The commercialization of the female?Consumerism? Color? Challenging the male gaze, or partaking in female objectification? How are these products appealing? Is this sexy? What do these products say about sex culture and beauty now?

Kheradyar bravely models the Betty Hair Dye for Dye herself. I don’t know the answers to the questions she proposes, but I couldn’t help “collaborating” with her on an extension of her project. I’d like to call this: Does the Carpet Match the Drapes? Or: Like Manic Panic for Your Pubic Hair.

Blue Hair SFW

Click through with the caveat that 1) This was done for humor, and only the image on the right is by Ali Kheradyar, 2) The fun-loving women on the left have been randomly paired with the woman’s body on the right (by me); it is not actually their bodies…but it could be… and 3) THIS IS NSFW!

Sweet Station

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