One Day at a Time

The "they" that are "THEY" say that one should never do or say anything that one wouldn't feel comfortable telling one's mother. One reason I have not yet posted about something I've done is because my mother might not approve (at least too much). But I've gotten so much positive feedback, that I have to tell her sometime.

I colored some of my hair blue. There. I've said it, and it's out there.

Don't believe me? Here's the evidence:

It's been so fun. People are always telling me how cool it is. A 70-something gentleman waiting in a line with me leaned over and said, "I like your hair! I had to watch it for a while to see it." You know you've done something right when you get a compliment like that from a much older gentleman.

What's probably more amusing, though, is that almost all of the adults with whom I come into any type of normal contact (friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc.) have all told me they like it. The high school kids with whom I work? Not one single word. I don't know if they think it's normal enough for adults to have colored hair now, or if they are just afraid to tell me how desperately uncool they think I am, trying to be a young person, and all.

I would never have dreamed about coloring my hair when I was in high school. I think I needed to be older than 20, and now into the self-confidence I've gained in my 30s to start having fun.

Yes, I bleached the hair first. That process takes about 4 hours with as dark and healthy as my hair is. The coloring itself takes 30 minutes. It's a fascinating process because the initial blue can be so dark as to really blend in with my original dark brown (ignore any grey you might see--and blame that on my mom....). As the dye starts to fade, though, the colors shift from blue to teal to turquoise. In certain lights, you can sometimes see a purple-ish color. And at other times, it might appear greenish...that comes from where my hair didn't quite bleach to platinum, but stayed more of a blonde color.

But don't worry, mom. I promise I won't go overboard. I'm not a fan of pink or neon colors, so you probably won't see those. And I have a whole jar of blue Manic Panic to get through....