Let’s face it. Most American women over the age of 35 use some form of hair color. I started going grey in my mid-20s, so I’ve been using hair dye for a very long time. I like the concept of gainful employment, otherwise I would try a variety of hair colors- electric blue, hot pink, deep purple, etc., but that sort of body décor is frowned upon in the very conservative automotive community. Tats (which I don’t have) are OK as long as they aren’t on your face or hands, and piercings are generally only for women’s earlobes, (I do have pierced ears) but hair color is something that should at least remotely look natural.
Most of my contemporaries go the blonde or blonde highlights route to disguise their grey, but for me there’s a problem with that. Since my skin tone could best be described as a half shade darker than albino, (tanning is out of the question) and I have a very round, moony looking face to begin with, blonde hair does not become me. The platinum blonde that my sister, and many of my contemporaries prefer, would make me look like a giant moon-faced, troll-proportioned mutant. I still have the troll-like mostly torso type body (short arms and legs, etc) but at least I look sort of normal- from the neck up.
For awhile I tried to match my hair’s original mousy brown, but I never really liked mousy brown much either, and the problem with attempting to match mousy brown is you end up with funky looking dark ends. So I took the advice of a hairdresser from a trendy (read: expensive) hair salon: cut it short, and dye it black. It seems to be the least offensive color/style, and dark ends aren’t an issue when they’re already black.
1987 vs. 2007- at least I didn’t do the California raisin thing…like my sister…
The illustrious Steve-o says every time I dye my hair I am “putting on artificial intelligence.” Whatever, dude.
Someplace like this- accessible only by boat would be nice- would be ideal!
Last year I tried to schedule three entire days for myself, in the camper we already have down in Lancaster. That worked for about three hours- until Jerry showed up with his loud, whiny self- and the other two dogs. What was supposed to be three whole days of quiet, reading and rest, with just Clara, became two and a half days of dog-herding, Jerry-whining, NO quiet, and a wicked sinus infection from hell. I ended up leaving early, after I’d begged and pleaded with the Dr’s office to call me in a script in an attempt to assuage the overthrow of my entire upper respiratory tract by the Endless Green Snots. Of course, Jerry wasn’t to blame for the sinus infection, but he did his best to make it even more intolerable. Some “vacation.” I’d been better off, as far as stress, if I’d just stayed at work.
This year I am going to have to employ a different strategy, should I want a real vacation, and find a remote place to stay (but that has electricity, running water and flush toilets) that Jerry can’t find. I’m thinking a little different area in the Hocking Hills, or a bit further south. Maybe my sister will have her summer house in Kentucky habitable this year and I can beg a few days alone down there. The only problem with my sister’s place is that the drive down there is rather lengthy and can be harrowing. There is no Sprint access within at least 15 miles, either, so I’d have no e-mail, internet or even people pestering me on the phone. Then again, those things aren’t technically “problems”- it just means that Jerry would be less motivated to try to find it and follow me, and it would be a forced hiatus from technology and pretty much everything else, which might be exactly what I need.
Fanny is a BIG cat.
Jezebel doesn’t care.
It’s actually funny to see them banter about. How Jezebel rolls Fanny over and smacks her in the chops, I’ll never know, as Fanny is about five of Jezebel, but I’m glad that when all is said and done they eat out of the same food bowl and they have no problem with crashing together on my bed. All four of our cats get along relatively well.
There’s a show on Animal Planet called “My Cat from Hell.” It’s interesting to see some of the solutions Jackson Galaxy offers, but what he suggests usually works. That’s impressive in and of itself. I’ve seen some weird stuff on that show, but I’d chalk most of it up to neurotic/weird/paranoid owners. If you’re deranged, your cat probably will be too.
ELYSIANHUNTER, ALWAYS INCITEFUL: 
There are times when I wish I was not employed in the industry I’m in, because I would love to have technicolor hair. The funny part is that when I was in my twenties, I spent a lot of money dying my hair red. As I’ve grown older, my hair is actually changing to a shade of auburn. It’s weird. Where was this shade 20 years ago? It would have saved me a fortune!
So does being gainfully employed require conformity? In my view this belief is increasingly getting contested.
Shakti
It does in the field I work in. There is a balance one has to strike between individual expression and the reality of dealing with the business world. There’s a reason why facial and hand tattoos are referred to as “job breakers.” I’m not saying I necessarily agree with it, but employers and clients still do judge a book by its cover, so to speak.
What’s “The California Raisin?” Is that a perm? Ick. Not a flattering style on most women, and yet it seems like for a while ALL women had them.
Blond is beautiful!
“California Raisin” has nothing to do with hair. It’s the look that forty-something women (like my butterface sister) who tanned in the 80s and 90s tanning beds that had the extra-fry bulbs have today. Their skin looks like that of wrinkled up rawhide because those bulbs completely fried their skin. Since sunbathing in natural sun is limited to a few months a year (and that only on the few days it’s not pouring down rain) in Ohio, tanning beds were and are still popular, so people can jump start the melanoma without any help from nature.
I prefer smooth, pale, non-cancerous skin- and I don’t tan anyway, just splotches, freckles and peeling, so I avoid both natural sunlight and those fry baby tanning beds. I’m glad I never did tanning beds now that I see what happened to people that did. Blecch!
Blonde hair does look good on a lot of people. Fabio comes to mind, as well as Robert Plant back in the day. But it doesn’t look good on me.