What Is It Like to Have Blue Hair?

Amani with blue hair and sunglasses.
Blue hair, don’t care – while it lasts!

I was in high school and college during the new British Invasion of punk and new wave. I was fascinated by London’s King’s Road and longed to saunter along the street with brightly colored hair and a quirky but cool thrifted outfit.

After years, okay decades, of being too timid, I finally dyed my hair blue!

I’m happy with how it looks (or I was once I started paying for a pro to do it). But there are some things to know before you take that plunge.

  • High maintenance. Some stylists recommend only using “cool water” when shampooing your hair – translation: cold showers.
  • I forget that I have it when talking to people and wonder why they are looking at me strangely.
  • Your employer may not like it. I waited until I was preparing to leave anyway.
  • If you have never bleached your hair before, cough up the money and pay someone to do it. I didn’t lighten enough my first time and my hair ended up so dark it looked almost black with blue highlights. I’ve just barely gotten the darkest parts cut off finally.
  • My natural color is dark brown with gray mixed in. I think white hair showing at my temples looks good with the blue, but only a few weeks after coloring my gray roots show up in my part like a skunk stripe in photos.
  • One of the biggest hassles is the color leeching or bleeding onto my white sink, my fingernails, and shirt collars. If so much as one tiny hair gets left on the side of the sink for too long, I may have to scrub with Clorox to get the tiny blue outline off.
  • Cost of touchups is over $200 plus tips. Maybe it would cost less if I did it every 6 weeks, but then I’m paying more often.
  • How you feel about yourself before you change your hair is mostly how you’ll feel about yourself afterwards. After the novelty wears off, you’re still you.

Looking Forward

Things I’m looking forward to after Eliana-Who-Sees-Us is released.

  • Cleaning out files, folders, sticky notes, alternate versions, and small scraps of paper that say “what if ___happens?”
    • Or do I need them for “deleted scenes” posts? Oh no – hoarding alert!
  • Cleaning my index card scenes off the bulletin board. I plan to do it on July 15th – “Release Day.”
  • Cleaning files off the computer.
  • Writing more and faster on my next novel. I’m less than halfway through currently. I had considered a spring release, but decided to go easy on myself. I’ll wait till I’m done with the first draft before setting the publication date.
  • Start meditating again. My husband says, “Yes, please.” Am I stressed lately? Yes, I am!
Looking forward to “releasing” my bulletin board outline of Eliana-Who-Sees-Us.

Building a Place for Your Future

“Build it, and he will come.” It’s one of those lines that went above and beyond the movie it was from. (“Let it go” is another, but we’ll save that for a future post.)

I just wanted to watch birds outside my dining room window, so I put birdseed out. A few birds became regulars. One hot day last year, I put water on the porch in the lid from a large peanut container. The birds loved it. The squirrel came on extra-hot days. A feral cat drank from it once in a while. The one toad sat in it occasionally. I tried putting a big bowl of water out, because I think it’s cute when birds splash around in bird baths or puddles – but there were no takers, so I brought it back in.

This year, after multiple toads started lining up to take turns soaking in the little dish of water, I finally found a wide, flat casserole lid that would hold about one-half inch of water across its length. So now it’s the toads’ hot tub by night and the birds’ water dish by day. (I do clean it frequently — just in case you’re worried about the birds and the toad-butt flavored water!)

The toads have a soak in the evening before they go hunting. Three others were nearby.

The birds still wouldn’t “bathe” in it though. A few days ago I impulse-bought an actual bird bath with a solar-powered fountain. No takers on that yet, but finally, today, a baby sparrow splashed in the porch dish.

If you want something, build and prepare for it, and then wait. Just focus on enjoying what you do have in the meantime.

Toad Tally

I was concerned about whether the toads in our yard survived February’s freezing weather. Last year, I would often see one peering out from the mouth of its tunnel under the back porch. I was actually checking for ants when I lifted the splash block by the porch and was startled to see two small toads huddled there. Ranjan found one roaming in the yard later. I tried to get a photo yesterday, but (surprise again!) when I lifted the splash block, there was a small snake instead. Now I have to keep looking for the toads to see if they outran the snake.