No time for a Hair Tragedy.

My Hair. Sadly its never been interesting, never a topic of conversation. It was always been just hair….Until Now.

I grew up brown in a blonde world. In my generation, blondes did have more fun. This was before woman like Amal Clooney rebranded brunettes as sexy, smart woman. Brunettes were just brown haired woman.

When I was young, I never really thought much about the top of my head. It was hair. I was one of those young kids who didn’t like when my mother attempted to brush my hair. Given the mother I was awarded at birth (Crazy Carlene), she just didn’t brush it. I went through my childhood with a snarly mess of hair. When I become a teenager, I was a little more engage with my hair. I brushed it, washed it, but rarely could I be bothered with blow drying and styling. My hair remained a curvy, unstyled, managed mess for years. Again, that was before the style of curvy-unstyled-managed mess had been invented by Madison Avenue.

My hair suddenly gained my interest when it started to look notably grey in my mid-thirties. At that stage in my life, I had a need to fit in. I was living in suburban town with a young child, attending young-child things like soccer games and open house at the elementary school. I was working at a college with business professionals. I made the decision it was time to make the time to look more polished. I dove into a new me – the pampered princess: my nails were manicured, my toes were pedicured, and my hair professionally colored and styled.

Then I started rescuing horses, helping other nonprofits with their digital strategies, doing more for others and less for me; and suddenly spending 5 hours of Saturday Time a month at the Salon became a time management challenge. As a result, I stopped with the Mani/Pedi. I started biting my nails nervously which aligned perfectly with the stress in my life. Since my feet and toes are so far from my bad eyesight, slapping a bit of toe polish on when I am wearing open toed summer shoes was perfect.

But the hair problem, more specifically the GREY hair problem remained until recently. It was a Friday. I had a fundraiser/gala to attend on Saturday and I had severely neglected my hair again. Upon inspection in the mirror, I noted the dark roots of shame at the top of my head, and the blond-ish mess of over coloring-product a the lower half of my hair. What a mess, how could I pull this together before Saturday? I frantically called for an appointment at my salon on Saturday. They had nothing open for a week .

Then receptionist strolled in late for work that Friday morning with shiny healthy hair. I asked her “Where do you get your hair done”? “Can you get me an appointment, Like TODAY?” She laughed and said, no salon, no appointment: CVS out of a box. “WOW, you can do that? Can I do that? Like TODAY?” She gave me the box to buy at CVS and the instructions to follow. This was a defining moment for me.

I rushed home that night, a quick stop at CVS and my hair problems were solved for Saturday. I read the directions, carefully applying foamy brown substance to my hair wearing surgical gloves. Then waited. But instead of waiting underneath a dryer at the salon reading a tabloid, I ran out, fed the horses, the dog, unloaded the dishwasher, a bit of laundry, read my mail, email, and soon forgot 30 minutes had passed. After 45 minutes had passed, I suddenly realized I was in the coloring process and jumped into the shower.

The result of the coloring-out-of-the-box experiment was not good. While some parts of my hair were good, others were not-so-good. My new hair color was pink, orange, brown and blonde. Oh dear, maybe it will fade overnight. The next morning, I was not so lucky. Horrified, it was Saturday, not time for an appointment to fix the mess on the top of my head. It was all I could do to reel myself in from the panic of “Hair Gone Terribly Wrong” and get myself dressed for an elegant evening. Not going was not an option. It was a cause worth supporting and pink, orange, and now slight purple shades in my hair would not stop me from attending.

The event was in the city. As I walked toward the event, my mind focused on one thing: HAIR. I noticed no one staring at my colorful head. That was good. I passed many woman on the crowded street, and started to notice that none had hair color that was known to grow naturally on a human head.

I arrived at the gala, found my seat at the table and immediately explained I had experience a hair tragedy. The woman at the table had a sudden interest in my hair. “Well, its not noticeable in this light” they all explained. Then one woman came over with the flashlight in her phone to inspect more closely. The table burst out in laughter at ALL of the different subtle colors that were identified when I lift my hair and ran my fingers through.

My point is my hair has NEVER been so interesting despite years of expensive color, frosting, highlighting and styling and hours of time spent in salon chair. Now $9.99 out of a box from CVS has create a new me – a much more interesting me. For now, my Salon is CVS…