"I think being a woman is like being Irish." — Iris Murdoch

Don't tell anyone, but I color my hair.  I have some gray, not a lot, not enough for permanent  hair color, so the past -- oh my god, is it really that long?  Let's just say I've been coloring my hair for a while.  Lately, something changed.  Maybe it's my hair chemistry, maybe it's my new shampoo and conditioner?  But lately people have been making comments about my hair.  Like Emma has told me several times that the color is uneven.  I'd been trying to make it that way, so it looked more natural.  "Yeah, but it's not," Nelson said.  "It's dark here and light here.  You ought to even it out."

Then today, it was Earth Day, and we were out in the sun all day.  After we were a ways from home, he said,  "You know, you have these strange red highlights.  They're almost pink."  Of course there wasn't a mirror anywhere around.  I tried to look in store windows, the rear windows of SUVs, etc., but couldn't see what he was talking about.  "It doesn't look bad," he said, "just strange."

"Oh, good!"  The mirror in my compact wasn't big enough.  Finally I found a mirror and saw what he meant.  He was right.  It was weird, but not bad.  I wanted to go to CVS and get another color and fix it.  I realized there was too much red in the color I'd picked, and somehow it had come out in a very fake-looking way.

So I got some Hydriance (which I remember my sister using) rather than Natural Instincts (which I've been using for years), and got Golden Bay, which looked like my color.  Nelson and Emma helped me pick it.  Nelson even put it on me, to make sure it was even.  I liked the stuff, very creamy.  It left my hair very nice and soft.

But I left the damn stuff on too long, so it's noticeably darker.  Nelson was laughing.  The color is "my" color -- or it was my color when I was younger.  It looks good, but... the damn red highlights are still lurking in there.  I got rid of my conditioner -- it didn't say that it was safe for color-treated hair.  Got a new one that did.  I have to check on my shampoo.  It's one of those detergent-free types.

I wonder whether anyone at work will dare say anything.  They're mostly guys; there's only three other women.  Guys don't tend to notice hair changes.

I don't care -- as long as I don't look in a mirror.

I'm going to call Clairol and ask if they know where these damn red highlights came from.

And Nelson said to me, "You're lucky you're a girl.  You're so impractical."  What?