It dawned on the Kaikorai Valley College assistant principal as he arrived at work that he had not checked the product to see if it could be easily washed out.
"From what people tell me, it's going to take a lot more than one wash to get out. I didn't exactly test it before I sprayed it all over there this morning.
"I imagine I'll get a bit of a ribbing from my mates at the football this weekend."
While the colour of his hair had raised a few eyebrows from staff at the local coffee shop, he said he was pleased he had done it because it also highlighted the issue of bullying in schools.
Pupils and staff at Kaikorai Valley College were among many from schools around Otago and Southland who wore pink clothing and accessories to school as the final event of Bully-Free Week.
"We've had wonderful student buy-in," he said.
"We had about 300 kids in the school hall yesterday doing a lip-sync and dance-off competition to Pink songs, and we've been doing a lot of work on some positive ways that we can interact with people - nice ways to speak and ways to treat other people."
Mr Burden said accidentally dying his hair pink for much longer than he expected had taught him an unexpected lesson.
If he had gone to school with pink hair when he was a pupil, he probably would have been bullied for it, he said.
"Bullying is still a nationwide issue that we need to address, but kids these days have become far more inclusive and understanding of the diversity of people.
"I think we've changed."
