Silly Things You Do

Young people sometimes suggest kooky ideas and even us supposedly mature people can make rash decisions.   When I was hanging out with the four youngest women in my family, at least two of them wanted to dye their hair.

Purple was the chosen color and I thought, why not?  I've always really wanted to dye my hair blue, but purple was at least close.  The dye package reported that the color would be gone after 8-10 washes anyway.

So, the two youngsters dyed their hair first, and then my mother dyed one of her white locks purple, and since there was enough purple dye left over, it was my turn.  It turns out it's quite a procedure.

First, you have to put vaseline along your hairline so that your scalp doesn't turn purple too.  Then you sit in a chair, wearing a t-shirt you don't care about while someone combs the dye into your hair.  That part is very soothing.  I almost fell asleep.

Next, though is the saran wrap.  That feels a little disturbing, but it's only for about a half hour, so it's manageable.  Also, during the saran wrap period you may heat your hair gently (through the saran wrap) to try to get the color to set better.

Finally, you stick your head over the sink and wash out the extra dye.  Make sure to have towels or rags that can get purple on them to dry your hair.

And voilà, your hair is purple!  Well, maybe only a little bit purple, and maybe only noticeable in direct, bright light.  The whole process took less than an hour and it was quite fun.


But the kicker?  Not a single person noticed that I had dyed my hair purple. And it wasn't very visible even to those involved.  Several theories were put forth.  My mane was too dark, or my locks weren't as porous as they could be to accept the dye, or maybe I forgot to recite the magic spell correctly. Who knows?

In the end, it turned out my impulsive decision didn't have much impact at all.