Back In The Day

I completely understand the need for expressing your individuality; however you’re “individuality” in the workplace shouldn’t look like you just woke up.  I went to the bank on Thursday and the lady behind the counter seriously looked like she’d been in a cat fight three minutes before I got there. 

I desperately wanted to share this bit of fashion forward thinking with you, but I figured that whipping out my phone to take a picture of her would probably end up with security escorting me out, so here goes my best description instead:  She had the top half of her hair pulled back into a small spring-loaded clip.  (I call them butterfly clips.)  Then the rest of it was pulled back into a VERY messy ponytail.  This wasn’t the end of it.  It then looked like someone had grabbed her by her bangs and the side of her head and pulled - hard.  I’m not talking about a little pouf on the top, it was like someone was pissed when they grabbed it.  She then shellacked the hell out of it with about a half can of Aqua Net. 

She seriously looked like she’d either A) Just rolled out of bed after a hard night of partying or B) Had just gotten into a fight with someone who likes to pull hair.

I don’t get it.  If I’d come to work looking like that I’d be sent home.  My office is pretty damn laid back – I wear jeans and sneakers to work of cripes sake – but there’s a line people.  A line you shouldn’t cross no matter what.  Brush your damn hair!

I’ll have to post here sometime the pictures of me my junior year of high school.  I use to shave my head.  Not all of it but half of it.  When I was in high school it was “cool” for girls to shave the underside of the back of their head.  On any given day you’d see 489 girls with their hair in pony tails but the back of it was a shaved mess.  But not I my friend.  No way.  You wouldn’t find ME following like a lemming.  No I had to shave my hair a different way to show my individuality.  I shaved the sides of my head.  Remember those banana clips of day’s gone yore?  Now imagine that sitting up on the top and back of your head (those things were huge, weren’t they?) but the sides of your hair from your temples to a point at the nape of your neck was shaved.  To the skin.  Yes, I was my mother’s pride and joy.

Add to that the fact that I once died my brown hair jet black and I’m surprised I had any friends.  In my defense the dying of the hair black was a mistake made by my friend who was in cosmetology school.  I was supposed to have my hair dyed dark brown & my other friend, who’s naturally dark brown, was to go black.  Jori mixed up the dyes once they were out of the boxes.  I thought my hair looked dark when it was done but decided that it only looked so dark because it was so wet.  When it dried both Tina & I realized the mistake but it was too late to correct it.  My mom about had a heart attack when she saw me the next day.  I’m pretty pale to begin with so the jet black hair made me look like death warmed over.

After much discussion with a professional hair dresser we decided that stripping the color out would leave me bald due to all the damage to my hair from the chlorine and the numerous die jobs previously.  Holy crap did I look goofy when I was growing out!  Picture this:  Shaved sides, brown hair up to the ponytail and the ponytail was black.  It was 6 years before I cut off the last of the black. 

I’ll leave you with that beautiful mental picture…  And I’ll try to find some pictures to post with this so you can see me in all my high school glory!!!