Locks of Love

This week ( 03/11/2011 ) marks an anniversary of sorts for me. It has now been one year since I first started to let my hair grow out. It has not been cut in the past year except to have the split ends trimmed. My hair is now just past my shoulders and I love to feel it brush my skin. I can’t wait until this time next year when it should be down around my shoulder blades. Did I mention that I love long hair?

A couple of months ago I was getting ready to color my roots. Yes, unfortunately I am old enough to have to submit to that chore. I had been staying with my adopted family, all of whom have been so wonderful during my divorce and transition. ( They took me in when I was kicked out of my house. ) My adopted Niece, Charity was going to put some highlights in my hair for me. She asked me if I wanted to stay brunette or if there was a hair color that I had always wanted to be. I told her that I had always wanted to see myself as a blonde. She asked what color blonde and I pulled out an old Newport News catalog and found one of the models whom had the most gorgeous blonde tresses and highlights, and I said “that color”. She said, “I can do that.” Yea!

It took us several days and tries, mostly since my hair was dark and it is harder to go from dark to light than it is to go from light to dark, and Charity had never work on hair going from dark to light. Finally, after stripping my hair and re-coloring it we arrived at the exact color that the model in the catalog had. I was thrilled and we both jumped up and down with joy. Joy tired after a minute so we stopped jumping, too.

Ladies, be careful what you wish for! I really was happy with the results of our, … Charity’s efforts. I had little to do with it. She had done a fabulous job. But, every morning I would get up and look at myself in the mirror and ask, “Who are you?” I thought I just needed time to get used to my new look, so I gave it almost a month to soak in. It never did. I just could not get used to myself as a blonde. I was getting ready to go for my first job interview as Lindsay and remembered Charity and my adopted sister, Nancy telling me to go to the interview with the hair color that I was going to keep. So, I went back to my natural brunette but with some added highlights. I was thrilled with the color and the highlights as a brunette. My confidence was high as I went to my interview.

When I was trying to get used to my blonde locks, I started thinking about the women that I admired and whom I thought were beautiful. When I was growing up, all the women that I admired or thought were beautiful, were all ladies that had longer hair. And somewhat surprising to me is that almost all of these women were brunettes. The ones that came to mind were Audrey Hepburn, Suzanne Pleshette, Marlo Thomas, Jacqueline Bisset, Jacqueline Smith, Pam Dawber, and more recently Julia Roberts and Jennifer
Garner. And, on a personal note, there, ever present, were my own two beautiful sisters. I wanted more than anything to be just like them. I hope I didn’t miss the mark too far.

To the several girls that told me that they had to “do” their hair on a night that I had asked them out, please forgive me for thinking, “What a load of crap. If you don’t want to go out, just tell me.” I now know how much of an undertaking it is to “do” your hair. While I’m at it, let me go ahead and apologize for rushing my dates as they tried to get ready. It takes time to be breath-taking. Giggle. Another observation; I never thought that I would be thankful for hair that got in the way. When Charity was doing my hair I turned quickly and got slapped in the eye with wet hair. When I eat I have to make sure to push my hair out of the way. When I clasp a necklace or zip up a dress I have to lift my hair out of the way. Such small acts, but ain’t it grand.