My Madonna moment on La Isla Contadora
I have blonde envy.
Not the “white blonde, pale eyelashes and non-existent eyebrows” type of blonde. Nor the “looks blonde if the light shines on it just right, but it’s really just dishwater” type of blonde.
No, what I envy is the “sun-bleached golden blonde with a tan to match” type of blonde.
And given that my natural hair color is brown and my skin is prone to sunburn, I will never attain that type of blonde I’ve so steadfastly envied.
Not that I haven’t tried.
In middle school, I first encountered Sun-In. Mind you, I learned from the follies of my peers who turned their own mops orange, and I never did try Sun-In myself. But I’ll admit I was tempted.
It was in high school that I first tweaked my hair color. A friend of mine bought a Hairpainting kit, and we tried it out together. It was messy and inexact, but it didn’t turn my hair orange. I actually ended up with golden blonde streaks, subtle enough that my mother didn’t notice them until I’d touched them up three or four times.
I continued to use the Hairpainting kits sporadically through college, except once during my sophomore year when I dyed it all red. Surprisingly, it looked great, but I didn’t maintain it well and the color quickly faded.
Once I graduated and went to the Pentagon, I stopped altering my hair color. Too time-consuming; I was happy if I remembered to get it cut every few months. So I’m not entirely sure what possessed me to buy a Frost and Tip kit and take it with me when I went to visit Kyle in Panama.
We took a short plane trip from Panama City to Isla Contadora and lounged on the beach for a few days. On our last evening there, shortly before dinner, I broke out the kit and asked Kyle to help me.
Gamely, he pulled strands of my hair through the holes in the cap, doused my head in bleach, and we played rummy until the time was up. I removed the cap, shampooed and dried my hair, and was horrified to discover just how blonde I was.
It wasn’t subtle at all. It was downright scary. Not quite Madonna-style platinum blonde, but far – FAR – too light for my taste.
And I was stuck with it until we headed back to Panama City the next day.
Back at Howard Air Force Base, I went to the base beauty salon and let a professional have her way with my hair for the first time. I didn’t know if there was enough of my natural color left for her to match the dye, but I knew I couldn’t fix it myself. I wasn’t my old self when I walked out of that salon, but I was closer than I’d been when I walked in.
Fortunately, my hair was quite short then, so most of the areas that she missed grew out and were trimmed away fairly quickly. But even in our wedding pictures, taken six months later, there are a few errant blonde streaks.
I have learned my lesson well; ever since, I have paid a professional to highlight my hair. And no matter how expensive it got (and oh boy, did it get expensive), it was always worth it.
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If you’re willing to share your beauty blunders, the Parent Bloggers Network and Harper Collins might make it very much worth your while. Today’s Blog Blast is sponsored by Harper Collins in support of their new title, Beauty Confidential. I have adopted this book as my version of the Bible, and if you want to know why, click over to Do as I say…and no one gets hurt for my review.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:48 am
[...] My Madonna Moment on La Isla Contadora [...]
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:03 am
Thank God for the US military. Storming beaches, rescuing hostages and fixing bad hair mistakes! They CAN do it all.
I’m afraid my hair is a bit of a mistake right now, but I will not be sharing. I will be wearing a hat.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:22 am
My hair is gray. It started when I was 17 and my mom would pay for my highlights. After I got married and had bills to pay, I started doing my own color. The grayer I got the harder it was to predict what color I was going to come up with.
A few years ago, right before Christmas, a stylist cut my hair WAY too short. I made it worse by coloring it the wrong color. It was, without a doubt, FUSCHIA. Not even dark brown would calm that color down.
Now….I stick with dark blond or light brown. Nothing reddish or auburn. Plain old medium BLAH.
Sometimes I even let the gray go….
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:38 am
With the exception of a couple errant times in college, I save the coloring for the professionals. And the cutting.
As a blonde growing up (with a tan, sorry) I didn’t truly appreciate my hair. Considering it’s gotten darker with every child, I’d probably be more on the ‘mousy brown’ side if I didn’t occasionally splurge in a color.
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:39 am
(Laughing at SueBob’s comment.)
I had a run-in with Sun-in as well, back in 8th grade. Spraying it all over my head, I got my black brows as well, which promptly turned a strange shade of magenta.
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:54 am
My college roommate helped me do a frost and tip kit and it turned out okay. But I only did it once because it was a pain in the scalp and really expensive to keep doing it month after month.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I was totally addicted to Sun-In when I was 14. I tried it first on a roadtrip to Colorado, and I remember sticking my head out of the car window to get more sun. — Now that I’m getting more and more gray hairs every day (and at 26… it’s not fair), I will probably start getting it pro-dyed. I shudder at the expense.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I hear you sister, read mine (which will be up within the hour). Most of the time when trying new hair things I throw all caution to the wind and I’m like “damn, it’s just hair” but when shit like this happens, it’s like “DAMN, IT’S MY HAIR”.
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:44 pm
But it is sweet that Kyle helped you.
November 3rd, 2007 at 6:52 am
Ain’t nothin’ grander than 2+ hours of a professional prettying your hair.
November 4th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Bossy share her beauty blunders? The length of the post would crash her server.
November 4th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Don’t be dissing Minardi now, missy!
November 5th, 2007 at 4:53 am
No way. Worth every penny.
November 6th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I used to get perm and color, each about four weeks apart. The first time I had my permed hair colored, it took very unevenly. Husband greeted me with, “Is it supposed to look purple?” Stylist redid it before I ventured out in public.