My pet peeve is cases like this where you mention the context of where you're from, but it's so broad as to be useless. There are places in the USA where it's popular to dye your hair bright colors and get tattoos, but I assure you there are also places in the USA where it is not. When mentioning being from the USA in the context of talking about USA culture, one should specify a state, metro area, or at least general region. The USA is a very diverse place, but since so many Americans rarely see the rest of it except through media (which naturally plays up the homogeneity or focuses on things that will be relatable throughout the USA, avoiding local quirks unless trying to emphasize a strange locality), they frequently mistakenly assume the whole country is a lot more similar to their region than it really is.
Do you have a place in mind where these things are not common? Like I have friends from Tennessee with colored hair, colored contacts, and like to wear bright "harajuku" style fashion.
but sure, I'm positive there's some towns where dressing in bright colors is frowned on. Not sure where that would be. Even Elvis and Roy Rogers wore outlandish clothing.
I'm guessing your Tennessee friends live in a city (or not even in TN at all, since you say they're "from" there).
In my experience there is much more conformity in rural areas in the mid-south, especially in middle class spaces. I even notice it if I take a flight from the east coast to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The first flight to a hub like Atlanta has a normal variety of people in a normal variety of dress. Then the second leg you suddenly notice a significant decrease in variety. It's just kind of obvious if you see it, so idk why you haven't noticed it unless you're not very well travelled in the USA.
It sounds like you are making inferences about Tennessee based on what your friends from there are like, but they are your friends (and it sounds like they chose to move from TN to wherever you are) so this is in many ways a biased sample. A more accurate way is to observe random people. I would be more interested in hearing your observations from when you actually visited Tennessee than your inferences you think you can make from knowing someone who is from there.
I happened to fly out of Austin, Texas, on Halloween late in the 1980s. An awful lot of the airport staff were done up for Halloween. I landed in Dallas-Fort Worth for a connecting flight home, and nobody but nobody was done up for Halloween.
