A Tiny Little Dream Come True....

When I was 14 years old, my older punk rock-ish brother had a friend who dyed the underneath of her hair bright blue. I thought it looked really cool. And some of his other friends had interesting hair as well. It was about that time that I decided I wanted to put purple streaks in my hair. Purple is one of my favorite colors.

Unfortunately, my mom did not approve, and I didn't have the disposable income at age 14 to be able to afford to pay for it myself at the salon. Sure, I could have done the dye-your-hair-with-KoolAid thing, but I didn't want to risk having to walk around with badly colored hair if I screwed it up. I felt it was something best left to a pro. Back then, you couldn't just go to Target or CVS and find the temporary stuff like you can now. Funky, bright hair colors were mostly just a punk rock/new wave thing. It wasn't as common as you see these days. Kind of like tattoos used to be.

As I got older, I still wanted to put purple streaks in my hair, but from the time I was age 15 or 16, I've always had a job (or been looking for one), even when I was in college which is where most young people do wild things like dye their hair purple. My early-to-mid-20s, when I was in a band or two, would have been a great time for purple hair. But alas, I always had a day job, with bosses that frowned upon such frivolity as violet tresses. So I never did get the purple highlights that I always wanted.

But recently, it occurred to me that I no longer have a boss. I am self employed! I can put whatever damn color I want in my hair! It was a revelation. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, other than I've been preoccupied the past three years making sure I keep my clients happy so I can keep paying the bills. I love my clients, and I'm fortunate to have a few steady ones that know me well and wouldn't think twice if they saw me with purple highlights.

So last week, my long-time hair stylist (20+ years, so I trust him with ANYTHING hair related) put purple streaks in my hair. (It was his first time doing purple too!) I had spoken to him a few weeks ago about doing it, so he said he'd get some purple dye next time he went to the supply store. He also gave a lot of thought to how and where to apply the color.

Coincidentally,  he suggested we put the highlights below the top layer.... so the underneath of my hair would have the purples streaks. Kinda full circle back to my brother's blue-haired friend!

The pictures here show how it looked at the salon, when my stylist had blown it out, and then put the cool braid in. I will never be able to get it to look that pretty. I suck at blow-drying my hair and doing anything other than the simplest of braids. But I still love my purple streaks! Since the color is mostly underneath, I can keep it pretty subtle for things like new biz meetings and the like. But I can also pull it up and let my freak flag fly if I want it to show more than just a little peek-a-boo.

Here's how it looks with just my natural waves, although there was a breeze so more of the purple showed for a bit.

I love love LOVE it! And it only took 30-some years to make this tiny little dream of mine come true. It's a pretty small thing in the grand scheme of life, but it has made me immensely happy to finally be able to do it.

Unexpected bonus: I got carded the other day buying beer at the grocery store for the first time in years! Sweet. My inner child is definitely showing.