Color trumps chlorine

Day 15 and color trumps chlorine.

Generally, I'm not a high-maintenance gal. I don't get mani-pedis (save for certain special occasions) and I hate to shop; the further away I am from the mall, the happier I am.

However, I do tend to the 'do.

I've been perming, bleaching and otherwise abusing my hair since, oh, fourth grade? It started with the feathered bangs. Nice. Then came the kinky-curly poodle hair. (How I longed for cute, bouncy corkscrew curls. Instead, I ended up with frizz). The frizz was then made worse by, first, a "bi-level" haircut (the girl version of the mullet) and, second, by the peroxide and lemon-juice combo that turned the frizzy mullet orange.

Why is it that we always want the hair we don't have?

By high school, I decided to leave the chemicals to the pros and began what has become my lifelong relationship with "professional highlights." Thankfully, by college, I gave up on the curls and embraced my stick-straight hair, reducing the chemical onslaught by 50%.

As I've, ahem, "matured," I've moved farther away from the "bleached blonde" look closer to my natural hair color only to discover--eek! Gray hairs! (Yes, plural.) It's not that I mind so much that I have them, I'd just never noticed before. The highlights hid them well.

Which brings me to today, Day 15. Embracing my darker, more natural hue has therefore introduced me to the world of "color." The idea of adding color to my hair rather than stripping it away is all-new to me, but it requires a whole new level of maintenance; where I was once getting highlights to camouflage my roots, I now need color to hide the gray. (Sigh. Does this ever end?) And color, I've learned, does not mix well with chlorine.

Needless to say, my stylist "highly recommended against" me going swimming today, what with the fresh chemicals teeming on my follicles and all. In fact, she recommended not going into the pool for a week, but I won't take it that far. I'll be back to swimming laps by Thursday but, for today, I'm kind of enjoying the fact that someone has given me a very valid excuse to skip my swim workout (and, to say "Grays? What grays?).