Hair and random thoughts from a Brunette

Recently I've thought quite seriously about doing this to my hair. It might be so fun to have purple/blue highlights! I never dyed my hair in high school or college. Then when I was 37 the first few grey hairs appeared, ironically enough while I was pregnant. I've spent the last handful of years adding lots of blonde highlights.

Now my hair has a respectable amount of silver. It's kind of annoying. I'm learning to say farewell to being a brunette, because that young girl with the dark hair has grown up.

Last month for Christmas, one of my favorite gifts that I GAVE to my little daughter was kinda fun. I spent like 20+ minutes at Target deliberating on which Barbies to buy. Finally I chose this group of friends for their amazing variety in hair!!

And I love each for different reasons. The dogwalking blonde is fun because my daughter really wishes we had a dog. The other three have accessories to be an astronomer, a teacher, etc. Ultimately, each Barbie is different from each other. In addition to the blonde girl, we've got black hair, brunette with purple/blue highlights, and a redhead.

I'm hoping to teach a subtle lesson here. We can be friends even when our outward appearances are incredibly different.

Moving on from dolls to real people, my purpose today isn't only to talk about hair. But first let's start with the stories of two women that I love, Brandy and Stephanie.

My friend Brandy is one of the most beautiful and kind-hearted people I’ve ever known. In high school she won beauty pageants and as an adult she's still gorgeous. And her hair is thinning. No, she doesn't have cancer. She has allopetia. It's a disease I’d never heard of until I met her. Beginning in her twenties, her hair began thinning little by little each year. It was then that I realized I had no room to complain about a bad hair day ever again. She had a bad hair year for like five years before she decided to shave it off completely. I love that she's confident and brave enough to embrace this reality.

We used to do the music together at church. She was the chorister and choir director, and I'd play piano or organ. I still miss hearing her lovely soprano voice. (The days when I’d play organ and she’d lead the music were some of my favorite Sundays because I could hear her singing, and it made the songs that much better to do them with my friend!) One week at church, she was leading the music and I was sitting with my family in one of the pews. She was wearing a wig; same voice, same body, different hair. The guy in the row right behind me whispered, “Who’s the new chorister?” and I laughed to myself. All he saw was the hair.

Contrast her experience to my sister Stephanie. Her hair is so thick there's enough for two people. It takes way more time and shampoo and everything, because the volume is off the charts.

Often we tell our kids, "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit." I think this is true for lots of things. Our bodies have limitations. We're not all the same size or shape or color, yet we like to compare our selves to other people who seem better. We like to measure our worth by what the other person has or what we don't have. Comparing is trap though. You tend to come out Better or Bitter.

I love this happy smile, a little girl content with bows and bright colors.

Also, I love how my neighbor was so patient and let her just play with her hair.

Another hair salon afternoon.

Evie from Descendants has great hair.

Ponytails in summer. What more can I say?

And, I've finally decided that I don't need to add purple/blue highlights to my hair. It was a fun idea, and it's still a possibility, and it still might look really cute. But for now, I'm okay with being a brunette with streaks of silver and blonde highlights.

A few weeks later...

I finally got my hair cut and I love it! And she did a great job on highlights too. So I'm still a brunette, just barely. We'll call it light brown.

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