when i was a little girl, i wanted yellow hair. i drew a lot of pictures of myself with yellow hair--with a groovy "that girl" flip on the bottom--but at some point i must have realized that i'd never have yellow hair, at least not naturally yellow hair, and eventually that dream disappeared.
then one teenage day, i decided i would have black hair. pitch black, as black as coal, and i could get it right out of a bottle. i felt so grown up and sophisticated, like i was becoming someone else, and when i rinsed that first hit of clairol out of my hair, i was hooked.
it turns out that clairol is a gateway drug. eventually, pitch black was not enough. eventually, i wanted it more than just black. i wanted it blue-black. and there it was, on the top row of the shelf at the 5-and-dime: clairol #124, natural blue black. an hour later, i was exotic.
but it was only a matter of time before natural blue black just wasn't enough, and that left only one option--unnatural blue black, which at first made me feel daring and adventurous, but which eventually made me feel inadequate and unloved, because even lady clairol wouldn't go out on that limb for me and i was left with nothing but unreliable street colors, cut with a big dose of peroxide, to get me by.
the detox was not pretty. it involved a combination of awkward hair-growing out and a short period of my life spent hiding in my apartment. i got thru it, and i'm clean now--well, ok, my hair is still blue black but nothing stronger than lady c. for me--yet i still occasionally flirt with the idea of revisiting my blue hair, although age dictates that soon i won't need the peroxide in order to make my hair white enough to dye blue.
these days, someone i love is having hair issues far greater than mine, so i did what anybody would do--i made her some hair. and since hair you make can be any color you want, i chose to make hair exactly as i want it: blue.
elizabeth, this "hair" is on it's way to you, i'm sorry it took so long but it turns out i am much faster at making my hair blue than i am at making blue hair. i love you, friend. go be punky!
