One time I was leaving a friend's place and an older lady with basically no English came up to me and communicated that she was very cold and needed a ride. She pointed to tell me where to go.

I got there and her daughter or granddaughter came out and was like omg her phone died we were worried

And then the older lady said something and the younger lady translated.

"She knew she could trust you because you have pink hair"

I thought it was funny at the time. But when I think back on it I think she was basically saying "you had a visible sign of not vibing with the system I was afraid of"

Be weird. Be colorful. Help random people.

No joke, this is why I'm less afraid to open up to therapists if they look alternative in some way, or just wear a little something that expresses who they are (say, a tie with a dinosaur pattern on it if they love dinosaurs, or a pin of their favorite character).

It shows me that they're way less likely to try to "normalize" me, the way a past therapist (who was hyper-conventional in every way) did.