Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Good Grief! Hair Grief.

Elvis Presley

I didn't plan on writing again so soon, and I'm not writing to report any major change, just felt the need to write.

My son and I had a difficult morning. I was so frustrated with him, you know, typical moody morning teen stuff. Anyway, by the time I dropped him off at camp he knew I was a wit's end with his behavior. Perhaps he also recognized that I am at this low point emotionally. When I arrived to pick him up at the end of the day he was quick to apologize for the morning problems, and said he had a gift for me. He quickly removed a rubber sports bracelet from his arm. It was one of those bracelets that have metal that's supposed to keep you balanced, only his interpretation was that it was a bracelet that will make me feel happy.

Well, it did make me smile.

This leads me to move onto something more trivial. Hair grief!

Last weekend my son and I went for our monthly haircuts. The last time I was there my stylist suggested putting a color rinse in my hair to blend in my grey. Now, I love my grey, but had to admit that the color at the sides of my head are so stark, so I agreed. Well, last time it turned out nicely. The grey was still there, but just not so prominent. My stylist announced that it took 10 years off me.

Thanks!

Well, this time it was quite different. This time he got it into his stylist head to put in a darker color. When he placed me in front of the mirror I kind of freaked. It was black. Jet black. Well, that's how it looked. He saw the shock on my face, and quickly headed me back to the sink. He put something in my hair to lighten the color a bit. That something turned out to be bleach. Well, it lightened it up alright, but it turned my hair brown. And, by the end of the weekend, it looked sort of chocolate brown. I looked ridiculous. I turned to my daughter, who I knew would be honest with me. Arianne, what do you think? "Dad, it looks like you are trying too hard to look young." Shit! She suggested I go out and buy another color rinse, and dye it a darker brown, which I did.

What the hell did I do? Every time I look in the mirror I am surprised by the person looking back at me. Do I look younger, perhaps. But, it doesn't look like me. Now the nice people at work tell me it looks fine, and that they mostly noticed how short I cut my hair. Yet I can't stop looking in the mirror wondering who the hell is looking back at me.

Now I am fixated on the fact that I will be presenting at Camp Widow, and everyone will be staring at my damn hair! "Hey, where's Dan?"

What happens if I suddenly meet Mr. Right? Will he expect that I will always have brown hair? Will I be trapped into dying in every month?

Truth be told, I used to dye it. In fact, when I met Michael I had been dying my hair. After we had been together awhile he said that I should go ahead and let the grey come back in. He and I agreed that we preferred the grey. Well, Michael later shared something with me. After I had gone back to grey, Michael's prior roommate asked Michael what had happened to Dan. He said that Dan seems to be aging very fast.

Ouch!

Moral of the story? I don't really know. Perhaps it's that I should be less superficial. Perhaps it's that grieving people do strange things. Perhaps it's that old guys stay single. I honestly don't know. But let me tell you, I can't wait to see grey once again.

Good Grief!

Hair Grief.

9 comments:

  1. Not meaning to laugh, but this hair episode sounds like something from "I Love Lucy"!

    Seems that you may just be a little too self-conscious, Dan. What the heck - why not play around with things a bit. Do any of us really take it very seriously when a friend does something creative with their hair -even if it is a bit over the top? Lately, I've been thinking of doing something with my hair - maybe a henna rinse or something - just as a lark because It might be fun to see someone different looking back at me from my mirror. Don't worry too much about Camp Widow. Chances are that at least 50 percent of the other attendees will be preoccupied with wondering whether anyone will notice that they changed their hair color since last year, and whether they went too far, or not far enough!

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  2. darlin' everyone will know it is you. And, you still have 15 whole days for it to relax itself into the right spot.

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  3. bev, you are supposed to laugh. Life's little tragedies are meant to keep our sense of humor in check. Besides, I love "Lucy."

    megan, this morning I saw the first signs of grey. Big sigh of relief.

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  4. Bald. You can always do that. ;-)

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  5. I had to laugh at the CW widow reference. I think we'll all know you, my friend. And I, for one, will take great delight in giving you a hard time about trying to recapture your youth. : )
    Of course, I have my own premature grey hair to deal with .... and I finally stopped dealing with it about a year before Jim died. Yes, I guess it makes me look older, but it also feels a lot more honest. And besides, it grows so fast that I had to dye it every 4 weeks ... or less. I was tired of messing with it.
    I look forward to the chocolate brown. And now I shall have to go and think of some really smart quips about it. :)
    See you soon!
    xoxo

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  6. Wish I was going to be there to see your chocolate brown hair! But I think that Megan's right. 15 days is a lot of time for colour to mellow out. And everyone will know it's you by your awesomeness (is that a word?), not your grey (which by the way looks very distinguished!). Have a great time at camp!

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  7. My friend dyed his hair and it turned a reddish brown! He looked terrible! Grey around the edges is very attractive, in my opinion.

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  8. I too think grey looks nice, and looks nice on you. LOL re whether you might trick someone into thinking your hair is always so dark and have to keep coloring it forever! Similar to the padded bra dilemma... At some point (maybe) the truth will be discovered! - Maria

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  9. You make me laugh, Dan! I never once noticed your hair, except in hindsight I *do* remember thinking it looked quite nice--and I didn't know anything was different. (I met you so briefly last year that I didn't remember what color it's "supposed" to be.) The brown is nice!

    And is it bad that I chuckled to myself with an unintentional type? "Will I be trapped into dying in every month?" In true widow humor, I snorted and chuckled, since it should have said "dyeing"…yet look what slips out of our typing widow fingers so readily: the word at the root our experience. Dying.

    Love ya, Dan!!

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