Lately, I’ve been thinking about Battinson who actually has naturally curly, dirty blond hair that he got from his parents. Picture this:
Bruce whose hair is a kaleidoscope of golden blond and strawberry blond and dirty blond that can’t be tamed when it’s humid out because it’s too wavy and curly and voluminous all at once
Bruce who looks so bright and cheerful with his soft facial structure and crazy hair that cannot be replicated because it’s so uniquely Bruce
Bruce who is a spitting image of his mother’s gorgeous natural color and his father’s wild mane
Bruce who absolutely destroys his natural hair because it reminds him too much of his parents
Bruce who tries desperately to avoid the gut-wrenching comments from those stupid rich people who thought they can bring up his parents just because they used to be friends
Bruce who feels physically ill whenever he hears “Oh you look just like your parents.” “They should have been here to see you.” “You’re a spitting image.”
Bruce who religiously dyes his hair a boring brown and straightens the shit out of it until it’s damaged beyond belief by the age of 18 but at least he doesn’t hear those stupid remarks anymore
Bruce who forgets to wash it sometimes but doesn’t care because his hair is his least favorite thing about his appearance
Bruce who gels the ever-loving fuck out of it to avoid it getting it in his eyes, but he also hates getting haircuts so it gets way too long and happens anyway
Bruce who gets greasepaint in it all the time, wears hats and hoods whenever appropriate, just can’t stop messing with it but hates bringing attention to the thing so he has to glue his hands to his side in public
Bruce who is a stranger to everyone and himself, especially his hair
Bruce who mourns it like he’s still mourning his parents
Now imagine:
Bruce who is going through the aftermath of the Riddler case and the floods
Bruce who only just realized that vengeance is not the answer
Bruce who wants to become Hope but doesn’t know how yet
Bruce who decides that he can’t hide himself behind a cowl all the time now so he chooses to develop a better public image
Bruce who realizes this requires a public appearance as well
Bruce who is way too busy saving the city to keep up his hair dye routine so he forgets to touch up his roots a couple of times
Bruce who is advised to stop gelling his hair back so much because it makes him look less approachable
Bruce who feels so awkward and vulnerable when his hair isn’t hidden behind a hat or some product or his cowl but he goes through the motions because he wants to try his best to be the hero Gotham needs right now
Bruce who walks into Mayor Real’s office one morning, hair sticking up all over the place after stopping no less than 10 muggings the night before, his natural dirty blond in full effect and strikingly…warm
“Did you dye your hair?” Real asks. Bruce pauses. “Uh, no. I stopped dying it a few weeks ago.” “I didn’t know your hair was blond.” He braces for the comments, but she doesn’t mention his parents. Instead, she just smiles. “It suits you.”
Bruce who genuinely doesn’t know how to handle the simple compliment so he just awkwardly shuffles around it and into their discussion on infrastructure
Bruce who stands outside of her office for five minutes after their meeting because he hasn’t stopped thinking about the mortifying reality that his natural hair is visible again
Bruce who also can’t stop thinking about how she said it. It suits him.
Bruce whose natural hair suits him?
Bruce who finally gets the time to dye it again after two months of nonstop work but when he thinks about what Real said…he decides against it. For now
Bruce who starts getting used to seeing his dirty blond hair in the mirror again, even expects it. visualizes it
Bruce who knows when it’s getting too dirty because the small peaks of gold disappear so he starts washing it more regularly
Bruce who watches the volume come back and doesn’t hate it
Bruce who sees the rat’s nest in the morning of golden brown and random reds and even a streak of chestnut and doesn’t immediately reach for gel and a straightener anymore. Instead, he just runs a hand through it and thinks ‘to hell with it, it’s fine like this’
Bruce who gains favor from the public along with a new look, a fresher one
Bruce who becomes a familiar face on TV as the soft-spoken billionaire with the dirty blond hair that never looks right but it’s personable
Bruce who shakes hands and holds babies and hugs kids and the most compliments he gets are for his hair
Bruce who always has just a few strands of hair sticking up in the most random direction but he just swats it away (in another wild direction) and that’s that
Bruce who stops caring so much about being clean-shaven and now sports a bit of stubble because he just likes it that way
Bruce whose hair gets naturally much lighter in the summertime because he’s outside so much now and so his golden roots bleed into a rich strawberry blond
Bruce who has so many unflattering photos from the press of his hair actually looking like a rat’s nest, like seriously how does it look That Bad (Alfred thinks it’s hilarious)
Bruce who gets haircuts regularly now and always asks if they can use as little product as possible because “I don’t like when it’s sticky” but he always likes when it’s just a bit long too
Bruce who tugs on his hair, not to push it away but to fidget with it during meetings, making it even crazier
Bruce who can be recognized from the back by his crazy swirl of hair
Bruce who’s been sporting this new hair for a year now, the summer has passed and his hair is comfortably golden brown again (emphasis on the golden) and it’s bittersweet because he actually finds that he misses the striking blond streaks in July
But it’s all worth it when he notices his curls are finally coming back in the front
Bruce who looks like a completely different person than before and he’s so so happy
707 notes
·
View notes