and don't it turn my gray hair blue
...written on 08.31.02, @ 4:50 p.m.
Sat August 31, 2002
Last night I went to my hairstylist to make an appointment for a cut and color. Don't get me wrong, I love my gray (I call it "sterling silver"), I just wanted to add some lowlights or something for more definition.
It was a bit of a struggle last night and even today when I went in at noon for my appt. to explain what I was interested in. I finally told Hideki, as I usually do, "Nan demo ii" (anything's ok).
He sat me in the chair and pulled out a bottle of silver color and proceeded to apply it to my hair. I cocked my eyebrow in disbelief as I saw the black goop go on, but hey, I've seen bright orange goop turn my hair brown, so I decided to wait it out. As the time passed however, my insides started churning and my "I'm not sure I'm going to like this" feeling was compounded by the owner coming by, picking up the box the bottle came in and shaking his head as he walked away.
After the allotted time they shampooed my hair and took me to the cutting chair. Hideki was busy with another customer, so I had time to look at myself in the mirror.
I was shocked!
My hair wasn't silver, it wasn't gray or white, it wasn't even black, it was . . . it was . . .
NAVY BLUE!
Finally Hideki came over and said something about my new "silver" hair. I told him it wasn't silver, that it was blue, and that it looked strange and I didn't like it. He told me that a few shampoos would wash out the blue color and I thought, "great, I'll go from navy blue to cornflower blue" and besides, I HATE THAT ANSWER! It's like "Oh just wear those shoes that pinch the circulation out of your toes for a while and they'll be fine, you'll get used to them.", ya go in to a place to get something that fits or looks good right away, don'tcha? I am not into delayed gratification at the beauty salon. Make me look good NOW, not 4-6 shampoos later.
Hideki was embarrassed and tried to get me back into the coloring chair, but I wouldn't budge until we had decided on something. He took me to the sink and gave me a good washing and back to the cutting chair we went. So now it's almost pewter. I kept shaking my head. I was afraid to have him try and get it back to my wonderful "sterling silver", so I said that if the blue didn't go away in a few days, that I would be back and he could fix it. He couldn't understand my question about semi-permanent or permanent hair color, so I told him to just style it and let me go.
So I ran home in the light rain and put on some makeup. I figured some bright magenta lips with a loud green blouse might distract inquiring eyes from my blue tresses.
I had to go to the department store in the train station to pick up a CD that I had ordered . I decided that if I had hair the color of a Japanese anime character, that I needed a "manga-tude", so I slapped on my sunglasses and walked out into the street like everyone should have this hair color and I pursed my magenta lips and wiggled my eyebrows at all the double takes.
Really ya know, it ain't all that bad . . . just don't call me Mrs. Homer Simpson!
3 shampoos later:
