There are pictures of me as a toddler with blond curls. When
I was about 3 or 4 my grandma came to
live with us for a little while and started braiding my hair. This upset my
mother who always swore that braiding my hair straightened out my curls.
Grandma always used a satin ribbon that she braided in with the sections of hair
and then the ends of the ribbon were used to tie off the braid. She did this
every day and when she left, my mother continued the practice. There were ribbons
that matched every outfit.
As the years progressed my blond hair turned brown…my two beribboned
braids eventually became something resembling a mullet, with the back long and
the front and sides shorter. That was my first real haircut…at a salon. The
girl asked my mom if she wanted to save the hair. Mom said no…then as the hair
started falling to the floor she changed her mind and salvaged what she could
before it was swept up. Mom straightened out the hair a bit and braided it,
tying off each end with a piece of red yarn. Then
there was a chin length bob with bangs. This time mother came prepared, having
braided my hair, with the usual ribbon, in one long braid down the middle of my back. The stylist had
only to chop the hair at the top of the braid…so mom didn’t have to retrieve it
from the floor to save it. A few more years passed before the last cut orchestrated by my mother. I
was about 12 I think, and she insisted it be cut short again…though I really wanted the
long silky hair that was getting to be so popular.
Over the years I had a few disastrous Toni home perms. My
hair was pretty much stick straight, fine and probably a bit stringy. I was not
blessed with thick, luxurious waves. Once in my teens, I put my foot down and
the hair cutting and perms ceased. By the time I graduated high school my silky
brown hair had grown down past my waist. And then the coloring started.
I can honestly say that, until recently, I had not seen my
natural color in 32 years. It started the summer after graduation with a bottle
of stuff called Sun-In. You sprayed it
on your hair and sat in the sun. It stunk to high heaven so I think it was
laced generously with peroxide. I spent
an entire summer lying on a towel in the
back yard, fair skin slathered with a mixture of baby oil and QT (quick tan)
lotion… hair generously spritzed with a concoction that promised blond tresses.
What I ended up with was orange skin and brassy, apricot hued hair. Lovely.
There was eventually another perm followed closely by a
brown dye job that went much too dark thanks to the perm and left me looking
like Rosanne Rosanadanna from Saturday Night Live. There
were numerous cuts and colors. I’ve been blond, red, brown and every nuance in
between. My hair has been long, short, straight, curly,…I’ve had ‘feathers’ and
bangs. For years I settled on straight, just past my shoulders and
reddish-brown. It was easy and the colored suited me. Until it didn’t…
I grew older. I struggled to keep the roots colored to match
the rest of it…yet all the while something amazing was happening. Underneath
the cuts and colors, my hair turned gray…without me.
When I turned 50, I decided enough was enough…enough mess…enough
aggravation. I made the decision to stop
coloring my hair. Cold turkey. Knowing
that stripping the color off could be harmful, I decided to simply let the
color grow out. It took exactly two years before the last of the dyed brown hair was
clipped from the ends. I felt
liberated. There is beautiful silver
hair on both sides of my family and yes, I got lucky. I must admit, my silver
hair is nice…more than nice, really. It’s mostly silver-white and silky and
shines in the sun. It has made my
grayish eyes look bluer and has softened my expression. If hair could talk,
mine would thank me for allowing it to grow old gracefully.
My parents both passed away not long ago…within months of
each other. Their apartment had to be emptied in a hurry so my sister and I
loaded up boxes of their belongings and brought them to my house for storage. A
few weeks ago I was finally going through one of those boxes when I found something
wrapped up in a paper towel. Unrolling it I found two silky brown braids of hair…one messy
and tied on each end with red yarn and the other neater and tied with a yellow ribbon…
Kim
