I have straight fine hair (and by fine I mean not like...duuuuude, you got some fine-looking hair... but more like...duuuuude, your hair is soooooo fine, can't do nothing wit-it!), so I keep it short and make sure to take many selfies on good hair days...you know...to document...on the Internet...forever and ever, amen.
"What color are we doing, today?!?"
Fortunately, my hairdresser has known me for a very long time and happens to be a good friend of mine.
"Oh, I don't know, surprise me!"
She is also a master colorist and a Ninja with a pair of razor shears. We have pretty much lived through every color on the Redkin spectrum, together.
"I have decided to dye my hair pink!"
Okay, I lied, except pink. Which is probably why our youngest daughter...who has dark hair and looks a lot more like me than any of my other kids...poor kid...decided it would be totally awesome to dye her ENTIRE head pink, because...warning, parental spoiler alert ahead...TEENAGE GIRLS DO NOT WANT TO LOOK ANYTHING LIKE THEIR MOTHERS!
"But you will need to bleach your entire head, you know that, right?!?"
She is also fourteen, which is that magical age in between "Read me a bedtime story!!!" and "Loooook at meeeeee, Mommy!!!" to "What?!?" and "WHAT?!?" because teens are super-inquisitive, like that.
"I already Face-booked Lori about it, she gave me several options and mentioned she may have to bleach it twice!"
"Aaaaaand, I'm okay with that!"
Which is Teenagerese for: If it helps her stand out from her older sisters and brother, even better!!!
"I have [birthday-graduation] money saved up!"
Aaaaand, she was saving THAT one for last. As the youngest of four, she's learned to watch...wait...and spring it on Mom when she's SUPER tired.
"So you don't EVEN have to pay for anything!"
Long story short (you're welcome!): A very large part of me admires her bravery, because being a freshman in high school is hard enough (personally, I'm still waiting to grow out of my awkward stage!) and then there's this teeniest, tiniest voice inside my overly-processed head that's all, "But does it really have to be your ENTIRE head...and pink?!?"
The youngest's transformation begins: Step 1 -- lifting the roots is next, because the heat from your scalp makes it process faster, just so you know.
Add to the list of 7 words that you really don't expect or even want to hear, as a parent: Feel how hot my hair is getting!
It's getting real up here, you guys!
But then the color started going on and...Holy Hannah Montana...that IS sooooo waaaaay pink!!!
1. My favorite: You are SO brave!
2. Okay, I like this one too: Wish I could do pink hair!
3. And the one that stopped me dead in my tracks, because it was not so much what was said, but the delivery: WOW, that's a different look, isn't it?!?
It was when my friend Lori began layering on the two colors (magenta and way more magenta), so I was actually on my way out to pick up my two oldest girls at work. The woman was getting her hair toweled off and I'm pretty sure the grimace pasted on her face wasn't from the toweling.
"I don't think you can get MUCH pinker than that, can you?!?"
"I don't know, Lori is pretty good, I bet we can go even pinker!"