Look. I see your butch Daisy and I understand it, but hear me out-
Daisy growing out her hair in the few months after the buried. She’d always kept it short before, for practicality. Less likely to get in the way, can’t be used against her by someone yanking it, etc. But when the hunt isn’t with her, she decides to stop caring about it. Lets it grow for the first time in decades.
Daisy who walks in to Melanie painting her nails in the break room. Melanie is still a bit unnerved by her hovering and just tells her to sit down, stop lurking in the corner. Daisy ends up with her nails painted- it’s a stupidly bright blue that she would have rejected before. Bright colors didn’t work well when you needed to lay low. But she keeps finding herself looking at them, and when it all but chips away into specks, she decides to get her own
Daisy who, when her now longer hair is getting all in her face and is about to chop it all off again out of annoyance, is sat down by Melanie, who is rolling her eyes as she shows her how to keep it back with hairspray, and throws some hair ties at her
Daisy who sees Melanie dying her hair in the archive bathroom and decides why the hell not when Melanie holds up the jar of dye in question. Basira has to do a double-take when she sees her after a week away
Daisy who still finds skirts entirely impractical, but ends up wearing them more often. If anything, she reasons, the extra fabric will hinder her, and might buy the others a couple extra seconds to run if she loses herself again. Rationalizing all of these other things similarly. Brighter colors will let the others spot her better. The hair can be used against her if she has them pinned. And if she finds herself idly swishing her hips to watch how the fabric sways, turning a bit faster so it twirls, no one needs to know
Daisy who, in those few months, finds a bit of herself in the impracticality of femininity that the Hunt would never have let her explore
Just a thought