Photography

ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES

It's mistaken identity by a bee as it zeroes in on Xavier Williams' hair on the Seattle Central Community College campus. His bleached hair is a way to express himself, he says, and there won't be any pollen found there.

Xavier Williams sometimes has a bad day, but never a bad hair day.

The Seattle Central Community College student is part Cherokee, Ojibwe, black and white. A cascade of cornsilk falls from the top of his head to the left.

A honey bee zeros in with a case of mistaken identity, and Williams sits still until it flies off. "It realized I had no pollen," he says.

His hair is bleached from its natural color of dark brown.

Hair is pretty much proteins, fats and minerals. We lavish $160 billion on it a year, globally, and take great measures to keep it when it starts to head south.

For Williams, it's "something I like to express myself through."

ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Mia Brown and Xavier Williams make dramatic, personal statements with their hair. Both have bleached and sculpted their locks.

His roommate, Mia Brown, also makes a dramatic hair statement with it hair bleached the same color. Both 18, they met because of similar politics, and both are vegan.

The hair color was simply a coincidence. She says her locks come from being half black, a quarter Norwegian and a quarter Romanian.

But restless changes are being considered. Williams might go all Andy Warhol white.

Brown says she's going to change to blue sideburns, blue on top and turquoise sides.

They might want to reconsider.

A passer-by on campus volunteers, "you guys have the same hair. I love it."

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