Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2001
Seeing Red
I dyed my hair kick-ass-I-can't-believe-that's-a-hair-color red this weekend. It's now Tuesday and I'm still trying to adjust.
Hmmm... what did I do? What was I thinking? And at times, I'm like, "cool...way to go." But there are more frequent times when I'm like, "Is that person staring at me because my hair is red like Ronald McDonald?
Or Elmo?"
Okay, maybe it's not THAT red. But it's pretty damn red. And pretty damn unnatural. I guess it's more of a deep, vibrant red bordering on burgundy. I'll try and surf the web for some good examples.
And my entire head is not this "kick-ass-and-pour- a-bottle-of-cherry-soda-on-my-head" red that I'm describing. That's just the highlights. You see, most of my head was dyed the regular brownish/copper that I've been sporting as of late. But instead of going with lighter highlights like normal, I was all, "what the hell." And since the highlights are on the top, when it's all down it gives the illusion that my entire head is this color.
Wow.
I guess for the benefit of the audience, I should start from the beginning.
Saturday I had my first appointment at the new salon. I'd been going to my girl at CV Hair Company in Lake Mills, WI for years and I truly loved her. Megan was awesome and she did some amazing things to my hair. First off, she transitioned me from some bad perms (god, yes. I admit it, my last perm was probably less than 2 or 3 years ago!) to some great straight styles. She also was my colorist and has made me a firm believer that I am naturally a red head even though my scalp has a hard time accepting that therefore requiring me to color. She is also the one whom I trusted to cut off my hair in December which I have not regretted for a minute.
I miss Megan.
At any rate, I found this new salon, Juut on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul. Juut is a chee-chee chain that are Aveda concept-salons and look way fancy from the outside. I figured I may as well treat myself since I was having to leave my girl.
So, my first appointment was on Saturday and I arrived early. The place, unlike my old salon, has a "client waiting room" full of coffee, tea, mags and couches. I suppose this is "normal" but I've never experienced this level of client-cushyness before. When Sarah, my colorist, called my name,
she took me into this way hip salon with exposed beams and groovy partitions. She was sporting a trendy, chunky short hairstyle which I immediately adored and wished I could wear. Her hair was dark brown with fat, bright red chunky highlights throughout and I was all, "I love your hair."
We went over together the formulas Megan had given me. I also told her how I'd wanted vibrant red streaks but the Aveda colors never held the red real well. She, Sarah, then told me they had a new product. The red chunks in her hair had been there for four weeks and wanted to know if I would like to try it. You see, in the past, I had tried numerous times with Megan to do a dark reddish brown base with a few, vibrant red highlights. But the color would never hold and would eventually even out to about one color in less than a few weeks. So, when Sarah told me the vibrant reds were available, well, I still don't think I knew what I was getting into.
Actually, I had no idea I had done anything that drastic until Sarah brought my back to the chair after washing my hair and these bright red strands glowed from my wet head.
Okay. It's still wet. It will probably mellow when it dries.
Then Sarah introduced me to Lindsay, my stylist, and Lindsay took over.
Lindsay loved my hair and said it looked great. I was still trying to assess from the mirror what I'd done. But the closer I got to dry, the closer I came to the realization that I did indeed have the Rockstar hair that Sarah said she was going to give me.
And they play their game so well at the Salon. They really keep it positive and Lindsay and Sarah both had me convinced this was absolutely what I wanted.
It was when I got home and saw James' face that I realized that perhaps I'd overstepped the red-hair boundaries just a tad.
"Wow!" he said when he looked at me.
I was looking for a little more validation but "Wow" was all that would come out.
Throughout the rest of the day which we spent shopping, I'd catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and then I'd be like... "ooh, that girl has cartoon hair."
Then I'd realize it was me.
Since then I've gone through stages of acceptance and hatred. I watch TV, read magazines and it occurs to me that everyone BUT me has natural colored hair. Other times, I'm like, "this is fun." I never colored my hair wild colors as a kid and I feel like I have guts to do something that most people don't. I feel surprising comfortable in bike shops looking for a new mountain bike. Those places seem a natural for wild hair and don't-give-a-shit attitudes.
The worst night was probably Monday, though, when I was obsessing over what people would say at work in the morning. I dreamt about it. I contemplated how "unprofessional" I may look and I wished a bit I could do this all over.
But work was fine. My coworkers seemed very accepting and I'm starting to come to grips with my wild-ass color.
Sometimes you just have to do something a little uncomfortable.
But you can bet I'll be a little more natural the next time around.
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Questions? Concerns? Email me at heather@funnymoods.com
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