The poem, “Heidi With Blue Hair,” by Fleur Adcock tells the tribulations of Heidi, a student who dies her hair blue with black spikes. This act causes her to be sent home from school, and results in phone calls from the headmistress to her father. Heidi’s father is a very liberal man and explains that he and Heidi “checked the rules,” and talked about her decision to dye her hair. The headmistress reluctantly agrees that it is not against the rules to dye your hair but that Heidi’s choice was too outlandish and did not even represent the school colors. A weak argument at best.

In the conversation, Heidi’s mother’s death is not spoken of, and since she has no other transgressions at the school she is allowed to keep her hair even though teacher’s make it a topic of conversation.

In the end, another girl dyes her hair using the school colors which are grey, white, and yellow. She did so to show her support of Heidi and to emphasize the silliness of the headmistress’s argument.