FARMINGTON – High school senior Art Trask sat down in a chair in the lobby and told Tory Gray he wanted stripes or a checkered pattern.

Friends of Trask, 18, of Wilton, made suggestions for how the streaks of pink should go in his hair.

When Trask asked Gray, 17, of Farmington, one of five senior girls at Mt. Blue High School who call themselves The Pink Ladies what she thought, she told him it was up to him to choose his style.

Trask decided on a streak of Color Pulse Funky Cherry mousse right down the middle of his head.

The Pink Ladies were at work Thursday coloring pink streaks in people’s hair to raise awareness of breast cancer and to get donations to help with research and prevention. The group is asking for $3 donations from those who go pink during October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The Mt. Blue seniors raised more than $400 coloring hair Tuesday and Wednesday at the school. Another 70 students and numerous staff and have also signed up for dye jobs by The Pink Ladies during the next few days, including one Monday at Mt. Blue Middle School.

Gray, Dora Plancon, Bonnie Silkman, Negin Dalpour and Rebecca Schoen are The Pink Ladies.

Plancon had seen a faculty member with a pink streak in her hair and asked about it. She found that it had been done professionally for $20, and she was not sure the money was going toward breast cancer research.

The girls decided they could offer the service for much less and have the money go to research and prevention, Plancon said.

So during the lunch period, the girls set up a table and some chairs, and laid their materials out, including pamphlets on breast cancer from Healthy Community Coalition.

Gray rubbed the mousse into Trask’s hair as Plancon, 17, of New Sharon worked on 17-year-old Alyson Webster’s hair.

“I think it’s good to have it so people can ask what is it for,” Webster of Farmington said.

Trask said once his streak was done, “I think it’s a good thing. It’s a serious subject, and this is kind of a fun way to brighten people’s spirits and makes people realize there are people who support it.”

He was directed to wash it out in 20 to 25 minutes. The coloring was expected to stay through seven to 10 washes.

The girls had practiced on each other before they did the coloring.

They had thought of Kool-Aid and food coloring but decided on the mousse.

“We wanted to do something safe,” Silkman said.

Plancon rubbed in the mousse in driver education teacher Carlene Sirois’ reddish-brown hair as Silkman held the rest of her hair out of the way.

“I had family with cancer,” Sirois said, “and I’m recovering from uterine cancer myself.”

Taylor Timberlake, 14, of Wilton had a streak put in her hair.

“I think it’s good to have a benefit toward breast cancer research,” she said. “I don’t personally know anyone with breast cancer, but if I did, I would want to make sure a lot of research was going on.”