Editors Note:  It is incredibly important to give credit where credit is due.  Although many people find Lady Gaga to be offensive, she is without a doubt influencing culture around the globe.  Who is your style icon and how do you replicate parts of their influential persona?  Allow yourself to have a little fun with the people who you lust after and see where that is coming from.  Is it envy?  Or is it not knowing enough about what you like, so you gravitate towards what others seem to like?  Take a look within and connect to your own style icon from the inside out! ~Nitika~

Love her or hate her, Lady gaga is on one bad-ass hair trip and we’re all along for the ride. With her avant-garde, oh-so-fresh style, Gaga has revived mainstream pop with her butterfly effect. The past 10 years we’ve been sleepwalking in a blonde, big-boobed, boring daze. From Jessica Simpson to Britney Spears, to Paris Hilton and Heidi Montag, we glamorized the stereotypical Barbie: the Barbie who men want and who women want to be. Watching mainstream media was like walking down Main St USA, rows of identical picket fence houses that scream “American clone”

Then gaga came and pushed the limits of our generation, making ugly the new hot. As lion’s mane is its power, Lady Gaga made a name for her mane. She’s had neon yellow streaks, bow tied hair, bubble gum pink. For godsake, she’s made a sunhat from faux hair.

Do you think she’d get all this attention with her natural mousey brown hair?

She’s been successful in influencing young artists to create a brave new world where risk equals reward. She’s unleashed the artistry that’s been captive for so long. With Rihanna and her choco-vanilla swirl, Christina aguilara with her vinatage rock blonde and Ke$ha with her trailer trash glam, artists are hitting the airwaves with their own unique style.

So how does this music, style and hair movement affect the greater “us?” Will I have my clients start asking for me to make a swan out of their hair? Will they start asking for “urine yellow” and not “gold?” Maybe not, but one thing’s for sure. There is a movement going on and its electric. Will this be a subculture or a new American culture?

Perhaps we can look at the eccentric, wacky Tokyo youth culture for a prediction on how Gaga-ism can spread. Lets take the Japanese ganguro girls as a case study. Ganguro is a phenomenon among Japanese teenage girls and can best be described as “certain hip hop physical features, such as blackened faces and necks with shimmering makeup, blond or white hair, boots with solid platform soles, and bright colored tight miniskirts. An imitation as an open expression of individuality, freedom, and sexuality.” In a nutshell it’s a backlash against traditional Japanese culture and a form of raging self-identity and spread like a wildfire in the 1990s and 2000s.

While this is a socio-cultural identity crisis or just a fad, I believe self-identity changes as the individual evolves. Self-identity and change may not have to be outlandish and statement-making as Gaga, Rihanna or the ganguros. The beauty of Gaga in the spotlight is that it gives American girls and women the greenlight to step out of their self created and society enforced “box” and have a little fun.

Why not push our own limits, even if that means doing the smallest thing that is daring to you. Maybe getting the bangs you’ve always been scared to get, or darkening your eyebrows or wearing your hair curly or getting that pixy cut. One girl’s “snore” is another girl’s “crazy.”

Take a breath, take a risk, unleash your alter ego and redefine pretty.

** This article was written by guest contributor CK, for her bio and contact information please visit http://yourbellalife.com/guest-contributors/