But will I have more fun?
Feb. 20th, 2014 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynYou guys, I'm blond!
My hair started turning red in fourth grade, which made me miserable. I'd grown up kind of an ash blond, and back in my day, red-headed kids were mercilessly teased. It was always carrot-top jokes and things like that, and it was widely considered that you could never be attractive if you had red hair. I still see this in fandom -- that gingers aren't attractive (I can't count how many times I've seen someone posting about how hot they think Max Martini or Damian Lewis are, which amazes them because gingers aren't good-looking, arg). And in my day, the word ginger to describe us wasn't in the American vocabulary at all.
So I was really glad when in high school it started turning dark blond in the middle, and the red was banished to the back where I couldn't see it. My bangs/fringe were still blond, so I was okay with that. And I never cut my hair because of a bad butcher job when I was an adolescent, so by the time I left college, I had long, straight, strawberry blond hair that I colored to light blond most of the time.
My hair was getting seriously fried at one point, when I cut it all off, so my new hairdresser was like, "why would you color out your red? Are you nuts?" and I thought, well, yeah, I should do that. I loved red hair. So I started coloring my whole head in various shades of red over the years. My hair was long, stick straight, and insanely thick but extremely fine, so there was nothing I could do with it at all -- any style slid right out, and I could barely even put it in a braid or ponytail because it wouldn't stay. It was totally shampoo commercial hair when I was in my twenties, though, to anyone else -- voluminous, shiny as hell, and fell like a curtain down my back.
And I've colored it that way for over 20 years, so I had no idea that my hair was turning brown. I finally let my pink and red and purple grow out, because I wanted to do blue (turquoise) next time, but the pink won't budge. I mean, it's been 8 freaking months since I colored it last, and it won't come out! But with three inches of growth, I finally was able to see that my hair has turned a fairly medium brown. There's a lot of grey in it, which I expected, but wow. Brown. I mean, really brown, not dark blond brown.
So today I spent three hours at the stylist's to get as much of the pink and red out as we could with a French shampoo (which I guess is really harsh and contains bleach), and we colored it an ash blond, and put blue (sadly, dark blue, which isn't really what I wanted but there's not much I could put on top of the pink) in, and now I have blond...or maybe bluend...hair. I can't get over how different it looks. I haven't seen blond on my head in so long. It's more ombre in some ways, because it's a bit darker toward the bottom since there was still some red in it that needs to let go of the hair shaft before it'll be completely blond there.
I probably should stop with the crazy colors, I mean, it's expensive and it stains everything and it's a lot of upkeep. But when you don't have a lot in your life, doing something fun with your hair is something to look forward to. Still, it really is a lot of money I could spend on other things. And yet, you get to be almost a different person each time you do something really different with your hair. It's an accessory.
My hair started turning red in fourth grade, which made me miserable. I'd grown up kind of an ash blond, and back in my day, red-headed kids were mercilessly teased. It was always carrot-top jokes and things like that, and it was widely considered that you could never be attractive if you had red hair. I still see this in fandom -- that gingers aren't attractive (I can't count how many times I've seen someone posting about how hot they think Max Martini or Damian Lewis are, which amazes them because gingers aren't good-looking, arg). And in my day, the word ginger to describe us wasn't in the American vocabulary at all.
So I was really glad when in high school it started turning dark blond in the middle, and the red was banished to the back where I couldn't see it. My bangs/fringe were still blond, so I was okay with that. And I never cut my hair because of a bad butcher job when I was an adolescent, so by the time I left college, I had long, straight, strawberry blond hair that I colored to light blond most of the time.
My hair was getting seriously fried at one point, when I cut it all off, so my new hairdresser was like, "why would you color out your red? Are you nuts?" and I thought, well, yeah, I should do that. I loved red hair. So I started coloring my whole head in various shades of red over the years. My hair was long, stick straight, and insanely thick but extremely fine, so there was nothing I could do with it at all -- any style slid right out, and I could barely even put it in a braid or ponytail because it wouldn't stay. It was totally shampoo commercial hair when I was in my twenties, though, to anyone else -- voluminous, shiny as hell, and fell like a curtain down my back.
And I've colored it that way for over 20 years, so I had no idea that my hair was turning brown. I finally let my pink and red and purple grow out, because I wanted to do blue (turquoise) next time, but the pink won't budge. I mean, it's been 8 freaking months since I colored it last, and it won't come out! But with three inches of growth, I finally was able to see that my hair has turned a fairly medium brown. There's a lot of grey in it, which I expected, but wow. Brown. I mean, really brown, not dark blond brown.
So today I spent three hours at the stylist's to get as much of the pink and red out as we could with a French shampoo (which I guess is really harsh and contains bleach), and we colored it an ash blond, and put blue (sadly, dark blue, which isn't really what I wanted but there's not much I could put on top of the pink) in, and now I have blond...or maybe bluend...hair. I can't get over how different it looks. I haven't seen blond on my head in so long. It's more ombre in some ways, because it's a bit darker toward the bottom since there was still some red in it that needs to let go of the hair shaft before it'll be completely blond there.
I probably should stop with the crazy colors, I mean, it's expensive and it stains everything and it's a lot of upkeep. But when you don't have a lot in your life, doing something fun with your hair is something to look forward to. Still, it really is a lot of money I could spend on other things. And yet, you get to be almost a different person each time you do something really different with your hair. It's an accessory.
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no subject
Date: 2014-02-21 07:50 am (UTC)I don't consider myself a feminine person, but appearance matters to me, and hair -- there's so much expression in it, across worlds. Queer and straight, old and young, mainstream or counterculture, White and Black, and so on. It's not foolish to invest in it. <3
no subject
Date: 2014-02-21 08:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-21 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-22 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-22 03:59 pm (UTC)I had to laugh. . .because, True!, but also told her that as a grad student I felt like the ONLY thing in my life that I had actual control over was my hair, and so I chose to exercise that control as a salve to the anxiety of everything else spinning away beyond my reach.
I'm happy that these days I am (for the most part) in happier control of my overall life, but must also confess that I sorta miss the impulse to change my hair on a regular whim. That was just fun.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-21 12:43 pm (UTC)(pssst, it's true, we do have more fun :D)
no subject
Date: 2014-02-21 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-21 08:30 pm (UTC)I've been a redhead for seven years or so, and I still love it. It's not expensive (I do it myself), but it's messy and a hassle. But every time I think about stopping doing it, I look at one of my older photos, and decide yes, I still want this.