I'm blonde...

At least for today, I am. Dang. Why do these things always happen to me?

This afternoon I had an appointment to have highlights put into my hair again. Now this is a relatively new thing for me---I've only had highlights put in once before, and that was just because I wanted a bit of a change. I liked the way it had turned out---very soft coloring and subtle---nothing too drastic against my dark hair. Well, today I asked for the same thing as before.

My hairdresser is the same gal I've gone to for a long time. I like her...she does a pretty good job...she's close to my home...and we have had some fun conversations.

Today as I plopped down in the chair, she started right in on a conversation...and she talked and talked and talked. As she talked, she had her little tray full of foils and the little bowl of hair coloring next to her...and her trusty paintbrush in her hand.

It went like this...

talk, talk, talk
dip the paintbrush into bowl
talk, talk
color a strand of hair
talk, talk
wrap hair in foil
talk, talk, talk,

and on and on it went for 2 hours!

When finally she had finished and I had sat under the dryer...she began unwrapping the foils, still chatting. I noticed that she began to get quieter and quieter as she took the last few foils out. After she rinsed my hair and then started blow-drying it, I noticed that she seemed to be fluffing the top of my head a little too vigorously. When she finally turned me around toward the mirror, the first thing that I saw were her surprised eyes reflecting back at me in the mirror. She had an odd little grin on her face as she chirped out, "Well, how do'ya like it?'' Sitting there and just staring at my hair, and trying hard to be nice, I said, "Wow...it's...pretty blonde...isn't it." With the same stupid grin on her face and surprised look in her eyes she said, "Oh, do'ya think so? I kinda like it." I wanted to shout at her, "Look what you did to my hair, woman...you turned the front of my head blonde!"...but of course, I didn't. Examining my hair a bit closer I asked her why the right side of my head was so much blonder than the left side. She looked at it for a few seconds and murmered that it was because my hair is so much thinner on that side. What?! Now, I've been accused of a lot of things---but I've never been accused of having thin hair...not me, nor anybody in my family, either...we've all got more hair than we know what to do with! But now not only do I have blonde hair...but, apparently, I have thin hair, too! I told her that my hair was waaay too bold and that I didn't want so much blond in it...I had wanted subtle, golden highlights, like before. Again, she told me how nice she thought it looked. (But meanwhile, she still had that goofy look on her face...she knew that she had messed up, but wasn't willing to own up to it.) Long story short, I am going back into her shop tomorrow to have her fix this mess...she assured me that she can color my hair back to its natural color, and leave in only a hint of highlights.

It was funny arriving home and walking into the house afterwards. Wayne and several of the kids were sitting around the dining room table...and as I entered the room they all stopped talking and stared at me with weird, fixed smiles on their faces. I assured everyone that there was a *mistake* and that it would be fixed tomorrow. Emma (2), the little sweetheart, was the only one to speak. She said, "You look so pretty, mama!" Another child asked why the one side was so much blonder than the other side. Someone else told me that the color really didn't match my complexion. Overall, I feel a bit like a skunk...blonde in the front and brunette in the back.

And thus ends my little saga as a blonde...