Dying To Dye by Carol Wells
It is interesting to see your child noticing another person, around their age, receiving stares and giggles over something they've done. Watching, along with you, in silent awe and disbelief. "Did they really do that?" Then your child, a moment later, seeming to think "It wouldn't happen to me ..."
When I shared the idea of me walking around with blue tinted hair, in another decade or so, my oldest daughter looked at me in disbelief. "Are you serious? Blue?"
One would think I had said, "I am thinking of trying to follow in the footsteps in hair thoughts displayed by Pink, when she couldn't decide what shade to dye her hair one year so went rainbow, instead of hinting about using a blue hair rinse that has been popular with the "older generation of women" for a few decades now.
Yet a year and a half later, when she and I stopped by a local diner for lunch, we happened to see a Kelly Osborne wanna-be enter the restaurant with her family. The mother, father, and brother tried to act as if nothing was unusual as they followed the hostess to their booth that happened to be located where they had to walk through the entire dining area before reaching it. Coincidence? I don't think so. The young woman also acted as though accustomed to people staring at her hair.
Sure, the family could act as if nothing was amiss but that does not mean the waitresses and other diners were duped by this act though. The family appeared conservative ... until you caught a glimpse of their daughter's hair color. Well you could not help it as her hair shouted, "Yoo-hoo! Look at me! "
I hate to admit it but my daughter and I followed suit of the other diners. We silently watched in marvel as the family strolled past us. Our waitress almost over-filled my cup with coffee as, for a few seconds, she was caught off guard by what she witnessed stroll past our table.
After the family sat down most of the diners, including my daughter, tried to return to normal conversations. "I'm thinking about dying my hair purple," she said casually before taking a sip of her milkshake.
"Purple? As in 'dark color but when the light hits it..."
"No, not black. I don't look good with dark hair," she interrupted to remind me about her fair complexion. She had a point; I cannot think of any of my daughters that would look good with dark hair.
"Purple as in a 'Kool-Aid® Grape'?"
"Close, but brighter."
"Oh," I replied then took a swig of my coffee. "I don't know."
"Why not? It wouldn't be like I was the only one with purple hair," she pointed out.
True, she would not be. There were other purple hair [not one-eyed nor a people-eater] individuals in their late teens to early 20's one could spot around town. Then there was that one young woman with the bright tomato red hair. Did I happen to mention the one girl who did not want to go blonde but goldenrod-yellow? This is not counting the one young couple that could not wait to see what they would look like when older so dyed their hair white.
"And weren't you also looking in shocked awe when that young girl, seated over there, first walked in here" I asked. Then I signaled her to see some of the other waitresses, who had missed the procession earlier, trying to casually stroll through the dining room and hoping that they could dupe the family that they were doing their job when all they wanted to do was catch a glimpse of the young woman and her hair. "And she seems to be still attracting her share of onlookers."
"Oh I am not going to go pink. Purple is about as daring as I would go," she replied in a serious tone as if slightly appalled I would compare purple to pink or that I would think she would dye her hair pink of all colors.
"And here, not so long back, you complained about me thinking about using a blue rinse in a few more years," I chuckled.
"Well ... you said blue," she pointed out. "It isn't like blue is a natural hair color for an older woman."
I about choked on my coffee at her display of logic. "Ok," I said when regaining my composure, "if you want to dye your hair purple then I guess you will do so whether I say 'go for it' or not, huh?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I have been seriously thinking about it," she admitted.
"Here's the deal then - you can dye your hair whatever color you want to. By the same token I can dye my hair whatever color I wish as well."
"Really," she looked at me curiously.
"Really."
"So if I dye my hair purple," she asked cautiously - starting to suspect there was more to what I said in my 'permissive comment', "you will go ahead and get that blue rinse stuff?"
"Nah, I said I would do that a bit later," I smiled before taking a sip of my coffee. "I still have some time left before I am totally gray and pick up my first bottle of rinse." She took a sigh of relief. "I was thinking if you go purple then maybe I could go a shade of green," I said after a moment. "You know - like a soft mint shade of Key Lime Pie green, I don't think anyone else in town has picked that shade so I would be the first!"
It was her turn to almost choke. She looked at me and you could almost hear the gears in her head clicking. Was she trying to envision me walking into where she worked at with my hair a pale shade of green?
I could not help myself. "Who knows, it may catch on with some of the other women in town and have them casting aside the blue hair rinse for a soft velvety hue of green instead," I added speculatively.
Silence remained from her side of the conversation but the gears still clicking away in that head of her's. Perhaps now she was imagining older women walking up to the cosmetic counter asking where they could find the shade of green, "Like that one woman wears". If the employee at the counter were unsure, about which shade to suggest or if they even carried it, this meant my daughter called over to answer since that "one woman" would be her own mother. She would risk becoming known as the store's green hair consultant.
She looked at me for a moment longer, as if trying to decide if I would - for any reason - dye my hair green or not, before she started to finish eating her order of fries. For some reason she has not mentioned about dying her hair purple again.
About This Story's Author:
© 1999-2006 Carol Wells - As a side notation, in March 2004 said child did dye her purple; such a dark shade of purple that she had to tell us it was indeed a shade of purple and show us the box. My hair has not yet gone a shade of key lime green due to thinking "it's more a dark dark brown looking shade than purple on her head."
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