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The first time it happened was when Dan was eight. At that age he only knew of one other person that it had happened to before, she had been lucky though as her hair colour had changed to a sensible colour, he however hadn’t been so lucky. One day he had woken up with bright yellow hair! His parents had gasped when he walked into the kitchen that morning.
“Dan?” they had asked “You didn’t do that yourself did you?”
“No, god no, what even is this disgusting colour?” he had asked.
Who was his soulmate and why would they ever change their hair to this colour he had thought. His parents, though shocked by the particular colour, where thinking about something else. Surely Dan’s soulmate had to be quite a few years older than him, because which parent in their right mind would let their eight-year-old dye their hair?
At eight Dan didn’t really know what the change in his hair colour meant, he was just happy that there was someone out there that was supposedly perfect for him.
Come Monday he wasn’t so happy about his soulmates decisions anymore though, as it was his first day back at school after the summer holidays and his hair was still that god awful colour. It was an unusually hot day so a hat wasn’t an option, not that he would have been allowed to keep it on in class. The yellow of his hair clashed horribly with his school uniform and it didn’t take long for people in his school to start calling him canary head.
When after a week of school his hair remained bright yellow he had begged his parents to let him please dye his hair back to brown, but they wouldn’t let him. Had deemed him too young to dye his hair, so he would have to suffer the poor decisions his soulmate had made. He had cursed his soulmate with every foul word his eight-year-old brain could come up with by Sunday, so the relief he felt when he woke up the next morning with sensible brown hair, just a few shades lighter than his natural hair colour, was immense.
----
After the yellow hair incident his hair had remained brown and eventually his natural hair colour had made it’s way through again.
That was until the year he turned fourteen. As all throughout his English class his hair had been itching and it wasn’t until another student pointed at his hair that he had realised why his head was itching. After the class bell rang he had quickly made his way to the bathroom afraid his hair had once again taken on a horribly disgusting colour. However he had let out a sigh of relief the second he looked into the mirror and saw that his hair had turned pitch black. He could deal with black he had thought, it actually fit his style perfectly (NO he wasn’t emo okay!).
By this point quite a few people’s hair colours had started to change at random, as it seemed that 14 was a far more acceptable age to dye your hair. Most of the time people would just show up one day with blonde highlights in their hair, but occasionally people would show up with bright red hair (it was the age of emos after all, even though Dan was obviously not one of them). So yes Dan really didn’t mind his newly black hair.
----
Over the years his hair had remained the same shade of black, though occasionally some brown would start to peek through at his roots. Well there had been those two days where his hair had been purple, but he prefered not to think of those.
Dan was now 22-years old and could honestly hardly remember what his natural hair colour looked like. Over the years he had started to wonder whether his soulmate was a boy or girl, as he had realised he looked at boys in pretty much the same way as he would look at girls.
At first he had assumed his soulmate would be a girl, because boys his age normally didn’t dye their hair. Then again he had always assumed his soulmate would be older than him, because of the yellow hair incident. But as the years went by and his hair remained black, he started to think of the girls he knew that dyed their hair as they tended to switch between colours often. Of course that didn’t mean that a girl couldn’t keep on dyeing her hair black for 8 years. And there had been those two days of purple.
At the end of the day it really didn’t matter to him. One night he would dream of long black hair falling over soft shoulders, long hair being pushed behind ears with delicate fingers. Other nights he would dream of shorter black hair that for some reason always seem to fall in a similar fringe to his own. A broad hand would push the fringe out of the person’s eyes before smoothing over a slight stubble that didn’t match the black hair. And on rare occasions it was both at once. He quite liked all the different scenarios his mind came up with if he was being honest.
Today however he had cursed out his soulmate with all the words his 22-year-old brain could come up with (which were quite a few more that his 8-year-old brain could back in the day), because today he had woken up with blue hair. And though it wasn’t the brightest shade of blue it could have been, it was still blue! And on today of all days, the day he had his first face-to-face meeting with the people from the BBC. Because yes a year after dropping out of university, moving back into his parents house and sending off what felt like a million job applications, he had finally managed to get an actual interview for a job.
“Well,” he sighed, “nothing I can do about it now can I?”
Well he could go out and buy brown hair dye and dye over the blue, but he simply didn’t have enough time for it. He wasn’t running late by any means, but he had carefully planned his timing so as to not waste any precious minutes of sleep.
He quickly shovelled some cereal into his mouth, before hopping into the shower. Because if he was going to the BBC with blue hair at least it would be perfectly straightened and he needed time for that.
After half an hour of getting ready and agonizing over how he looked (too much black?) he was finally ready and made his way to the train station to get the train from Reading to London. When he got the London he quickly found his way to the underground and got onto the Victoria line to Oxford Circus. He wished he had at least managed to get one other actual job interview as practice, because he was a nervous mess. He kept wiping his sweaty palms against his black skinny jeans and his morning bowl of shreddies was threatening to make its return.
Finally the tinny voice announced his arrival at oxford circus, wiping his hands on his knees once more he got up and made his way out of the station. Soon enough the massive building that housed the broadcasting house doomed up in the sky.
He quickly made his way inside and headed to the front desk. The woman behind the desk looked him up and down before stopping at his blue hair but didn’t mention anything as she asked him for his name and why he was there. Dan figured she was probably used to more eccentric looking people showing up to her desk. And Dan silently thanked whatever was out there that this wasn’t an interview for a law firm instead. She told him someone would be there for him soon and to please have a seat in the waiting area.
Dan looked around, but there wasn’t a lot he could actually see from where he was sat. He had hoped to be able to get a quick look at the floor that housed the massive newsroom, but art covered walls it was.
After about ten minutes a man wearing a dark blue button up and dark slacks walked into the waiting area.
“Dan Howell?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Great, I’m James Davies, the social media community executive. If you’ll follow me?”
Damn Dan thought, as he followed James, his first job interview was already with the executive.
“Nice hair by the way,” James grinned.
“Uhh, yeah my soulmate seems to have great timing. I hope it isn’t a problem? I can dye it over, but I literally just woke up with it this morning.” Dan said, fidgeting with his hair.
“Oh don’t worry about it. It might actually be an interesting look if this works out.”
‘If this works out?!’ Dan thought, the interview hadn’t even started.
They had found their way to a small conference room where another man was waiting.
“Dan, this is Roy Stanson, head of the Marketing and Audiences department. Our social media team is part of his department, so he will be here for the interview as well.”
“Hi, Dan Howell,” Dan said as he shook Roy’s hand.
Roy looked to be in his early-forties and seemed to have ombre hair that coloured the tips of his hair a dark red.
Roy noticed his eyes lingering on his hair. “Soulmates huh,” he shrugged as if to say what can you do.
“Yeah, I’m not sure you would call this a pleasant surprise on the morning of your big job interview,” Dan sighed as he pointed at his hair.
“Hey don’t worry about it. I keep begging my wife to please change it back, but she refuses to.”
Well Dan thought this job interview is starting out a lot less formal than he expected. He might actually have to thank his soulmate for the surprise hair dye if this all worked out.
---
Half an hour later he stepped back out of the BBC building, relieve settling in his stomach. The interview had gone surprisingly well.
After the remarkably informal introductions James and Roy had explained the job some more. If he got the job he would be working on an online segment they were starting that involved a lot of behind the scenes content. They had actually watched a few of his videos and seemed to like the vibe he gave of in them, confident he would make a great online video host. He would also be involved in everything else after filming the segments. Video editing, uploading and promoting the content online. Basically what he had tried to do with his YouTube videos but with a much bigger audience.
---
Two days later Dan was back home, scrolling through his YouTube subscription feed as he normally would. He wouldn’t hear back from the BBC until the end of the week, so his previous routine of watching YouTube videos and gaming all day had returned. His parents had been surprised by his blue hair when he arrived back home on the day of his job interview as they had already left for work that morning and hadn’t seen it until then. He assured them that his blue locks hadn’t affected his job interview, but might in fact have helped him.
Parents now temporarily pleased and not hounding him to apply for more jobs, he was back to his old routine. And it was on this otherwise dull evening that he noticed it, a new video by a guy called AmazingPhil called ‘Dyeing my hair blue’. Dan had always enjoyed watching Phil’s videos, but the title of this one had him clicking on it instantly. It had to be coincidence right?
The video starts with Phil talking about a way to keep your zipper up with a key ring, which Dan thinks is actually a pretty cool life hack. Phil then goes on to talk about how he got a haircut and how ‘his’ hair ended up ebay, which sound really creepy.
‘Good grocery choices,’ Dan thinks as Phil shows the viewers his cereal bar and popcorn. But then Phil mentions a mystery item, which turns out to be hair dye and Dan’s stomach clenched because the colour on the box looks quite like his hair. ‘Still,’ Dan thinks, ‘it doesn’t have to mean anything.’
Phil goes on to change into an old blue shirt with a penguin on it before starting to dye his hair blue. He answers some questions people have asked him on Twitter and Dan likes hearing him answer them.
But then comes the time to wash out the hair dye and see the result. And if the image on the box made his stomach clench seeing Phil with his hair dyed blue makes it about ten time stronger. Because while the colour on the box looked a lot like his hair he didn’t really trust the image, hair dye never really looks like the exact image on the box. But Phil’s hair looks exactly like his does and Dan starts to wonder what if. What if Phil is his soulmate? Did Phil dye his hair black or was that his natural hair colour? Dan couldn’t really recall him ever mentioning it, but it looked like it had been dyed. And he remembered both his brother and mother not having black hair, so it seemed unlikely.
He had to try and find out when Phil had dyed his hair blue. He could’ve filmed the video yesterday or a week ago, you never really knew with YouTube videos. He went to Phil’s Twitter account, but the tweet asking for questions had been deleted already (probably to stop people from asking more questions). So that wasn’t his answer, desperate to know more he decided to tweet Phil himself.
‘@AmazingPhil hey super random question, but when did you dye your hair blue for your latest video?’
An hour later and he still hadn’t gotten a response from Phil, he hadn’t really expected one to be honest but he was desperate. Which was why he was now typing out another tweet to Phil.
‘@AmazingPhil hey i know it’s a really random/weird question, but when did you dye your hair blue for you latest video?it’s really important!’
Deciding to leave it at that for now, he didn’t want to spam Phil’s timeline, Dan went back to watching YouTube videos. So he was surprised to see his phone light up with a Twitter notification not even 15 minutes later. His mouth fell about in shock as he saw that Phil had started following him and merely a minute later his phone pinged again to notify him of a direct message from Phil.
Phil: Hey Dan, yes that is quite a random question. Why do you wanna know? (You said it was really important)
Dan: oh wow i didn’t expect a reply so quickly. uhm well it’s quite hard to explain.
wait lemme just show you.
Phil: Oh uhm, the colour looks good on you? But why do you need to know when I dyed my hair blue?
Dan: because i didn’t dye my hair blue, but woke up to it two days ago.
Phil: Oh. I dyed my hair blue the day before that though…
Dan: did you do it late at night? because i for once in my life went to bed early that day.
Phil: Uhm define late?
Dan: like 11 at night?
Phil: Oh. Yeah I guess I did film it around that time.
Dan: phil do you know what this might mean?
Phil: We could be soulmates? There must have been other people that dyed their hair blue on that day and that time.
Dan: okay, true. how long have you been dyeing your hair black tho? like 8 years right?
Phil: What makes you think I dye my hair black?!
Dan: just answer the question…
Phil: Uhm yes I think it’s been about that long.
Dan: phil my hair has been black for 8 years now and i have never in my life dyed my hair. did you ever dye your hair bright yellow?
Phil: How?
Dan: i walked around with yellow hair for a week when i was 8! EIGHT phil!
Phil: Damn, yeah that was terrible. It was my first year of high school man I don’t know why I did that. And then my mum didn’t have time to dye it brown until the end of the week. Sorry about that. You should’ve dyed it back to your natural hair colour.
Dan: i was eight phil, my parents wouldn’t let me. but really phil we’re freaking soulmates, i feel like we should be freaking out more right now!
Phil: Oh believe me I am.
Phil: I can’t believe my soulmate thinks 11pm is late, how did the universe decide that we were meant for each other?!
Dan: hahahahaha, no, just no. did you not read my message saying, for once in my life? i had a fucking job interview the next morning! you made me go to a job interview with the BBC with blue hair!
Phil: Oops
Phil: How did that go?
Dan: great actually. well i haven’t heard back yet, but they actually quite liked the blue hair :|
Phil: So hopefully you’ll be back in London soon? We could meet up sometime, see if the universe is right about us being soulmates and all?
Dan: yeah, i’d be up to that for sure.
---- (Two weeks later)
The blue hair dye had washed out of Phil’s - and thus Dan’s - hair pretty quickly, so the were now getting ready to film their first collab together with Phil’s normal black hair.
“Hey guys, I’d like to introduce to you my new YouTube friend, Dan Howell aka danisnotonfire!”
“Hello internet,” Dan waved.
“So today’s collab is not just any old collab, no it’s actually quite a special one. Do you want to tell them what we’ll be doing today Dan?”
“Sure. Well guys today we are going to dye my hair!”
“Can you guys believe Dan has never dyed his hair before?”
“I just never felt the need okay. Your video inspired me though,” Dan smiled.
“So yeah for some reason Dan trusts me - Me Guys! - to dye his hair for the first time. Which colour did you pick Dan?”
“Purple,” Dan smirked because he knew Phil would have to go around with purple hair as well. Perfect payback for the blue hair Dan thought.
“Very daring for your first time dyeing your hair Dan.”
“What can I say, I like to live life on the edge,” Dan chuckled.
They then opened the package of hair dye. Phil held the bottle while Dan squirted in the hair dye from the tube. How Phil had managed to do this by himself in his other video they weren’t sure.
“Okay so now we have to shake it and then it’s hair dyeing time!” Phil said enthusiastically as he went to shake the bottle vigorously.
Phil put on the gloves provided in the package as Dan put a dark towel around his neck so as to not ruin his sweater.
“Okay ready Dan?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Dan smiled sort of nervously at the camera.
Phil then started to squirt the dye out on different parts of Dan’s hair and rubbed it in with his gloved fingers.
“Okay so that will have to do it’s magic for about 30 minutes, so we figured we’d answer some of your questions again,” Phil said as he had covered all of Dan’s hair with the purple hair dye.”
As they were answering the questions Phil kept itching his head, feeling the effect of the hair dye just like Dan. And as they got close to the 30 minute mark his hair started to slowly turn a little bit purple.
“Okay, that’s 30 minutes Dan, go wash out your hair!”
The camera switches to a different scene and Dan can be heard yelling at Phil through a closed bathroom door.
“Phil how the fuck does your fucking shower work?! It’s bloody boiling!”
“Dan! Now I’ll have to bleep that!”
The scene switches back to Phil’s bedroom. Dan is sat on Phil’s bed, hair covered in a towel to keep the surprise and Phil is now wearing a beanie for some reason.
“Okay guys, let’s give you all the reveal,” Dan says.
And at the same time that Dan takes of the towel Phil takes of his beanie, showing the viewers their matching purple hair.
“Tadaaah!” they say simultaneously.
“So do you like it Dan?”
“Yeah I do actually, even though it’s a little on the pink side. Don’t know why I hated it so much for those two days back when I was 19.”
“Yeah but that was a really dodgy purple I did back then. But this purple looks good on you Dan.”
“Looks pretty cool on you too Phil.”
And that is all the mention they give to the fact that Phil’s hair had turned purple as well. They end the video and leave the viewers to put the puzzle pieces together themselves, thus causing the internet to have a minor meltdown.
