Beyond Purple Passion

Bobbilyn Bradley LOVES the color purple.

This may seem like a very plain, or maybe odd way to start an article. You may be wondering, “What kind of beginning is this?” But honestly, any more adjectives, punctuation or supporting sentences would obscure the fact that is about to be conveyed to you.

Bobbilyn Bradley LOVES the color purple!

You may know her already, without knowing her name. If you walk into Shore Styles Salon on Park Boulevard, you will instantly know which station is hers. She has purple combs, brushes, signs, clock, q-tips, cottonballs, nail polish remover, hair spray, and bottles. She may be wearing her purple UGGs, purple leopard printed shirt, and have purple nails. She will probably be wearing purple jewelry and purple glasses. She could show you her purple piggy bank, purple marti gras mask, purple sunset photo, purple stuffed animals, and purple phone. You may have seen her driving around the island in her previous purple cars, or now in her green car with a completely purple interior from steering wheel cover and air freshener to seat covers.

Yep. A lot of purple right? But how did this all start? Let’s start at the beginning. Bobbilyn was one of 6 children. She had 4 sisters and one brother, and out of them all she is the only one that fully inherited her mother’s fondness of the color purple. Perhaps it all started with her February birth...her birthstone is amethyst and she was brought home from the hospital wrapped in a purple receiving blanket! However it began, Bobbilyn has always loved purple, and started collecting at an early age. “My mom, [Bobbi Young] started to buy me things, and my sisters and friends would buy me stuff, purple shirts, purple earrings.” Over 30 years later, Bobbilyn is still in love with purple, both plain and patterned purple, as well as every shade and every hue.

“As soon as I walk into a store it draws me right towards it. I find everything and anything [purple]. If I see it, I have to have it,” Bobbilyn laughed. “I will do anything to get it, even bribing someone for the shirt off their back!”

Bobbilyn’s house also pays homage to her purple obsession. She has a purple couch, rugs, lamps, and bowls with purple potpourri in it. Her kitchen table set is purple, as is her microwave, toaster, toilet seat, VCR and laptop. Her dog wears a purple collar, as does her cat. One of the few non-purple items she has is her stove and refrigerator. However, she has her purple paint on hand to help her in these areas!

Think that is a lot of purple? There is still more! Bobbilyn likes purple food as well, both naturally purple food like eggplant, and food not normally purple but oh yes it can be; like purple Oreos, butter, ketchup and icing. The only purple food she doesn’t like, surprisingly, is grape soda and lollipops. “I even saved a purple bagel someone gave me; I left it in my refrigerator until it got all nasty!”

Bobbilyn Bradley has been a hairstylist for 21 years, and her clients come in asking, “Can I have the purple girl?” They bring her purple gifts, from purses, gloves and toys, to purple electrical tape. They call her “Purple people eater, Barney, Purple Haze, and the Purple Ninja.” Her customers will come into the salon and wear purple, just for her. So not only does she just love the color, but she passes a little bit of that love to the people around her.

Bobbilyn’s love of purple isn’t just a love of convenience; she goes to great lengths to get a hold of as much purple as possible! On one occasion, while she was cutting a man’s hair, she noticed a truck going by with a purple lounge chair in it. “I yelled ‘Oh my God, a purple lounge chair!’ And a lady [in the shop] went outside and yelled ‘Stop, Stop!’ to the truck.” The truck did indeed stop, and it turns out the chair was from a hotel and was on its way to be thrown out. So Bobbilyn saved her purple chair, and kindly the man whose hair she was cutting even offered to throw it in the back of his truck and drop it by her house for her.

“It is an obsession, and a love,” Bobbilyn said. “It is a purple passion.”

She doesn’t really like any other colors, and she doesn’t foresee her love of purple diminishing. Many people have loyalties. And lots of people collect things. But Bobbilyn Bradley is a loyal collector and appreciator, of purple.