Monday, April 23, 2007

Fun Monday - Bad Hair


This week's Fun Monday challenge is from Robin of Pensieve. Robin has asked us to show our worst of our bad hair days. I am not sure that my hair ever looks great. For one thing, I cut my own hair. Now, now, do not ((shudder)). My hair does not look much different if I cut it or if the nice lady at the salon cuts my locks, and my cut is free. Next, I have old gray hair or as my Dad used to say, "I have dead hair." Of course, my hair has not always been gray, but it was always wispy as evidenced in this picture.
As I grew to childhood, my mother bless her heart, liked this ah... pin curl look that is featured in these two pictures. The picture on the left shows me in my favorite wine-colored velvet dress with a pinafore; I am four years old.

The picture on the right is the me at age 11 with the same not-so-stylish hair-do. I think that my sweet Aunt Evelyn wore her hair this way until she died.

Luckily, in between the ages of four and eleven, my older sister took charge of my hair. She decided that I should have braids. The braids were not so bad except that I had to sit still while my sister braided my hair.




Throughout my sixty years, I have had long hair, short hair and the troublesome lengths in between. I have worn bubble-dos, pixie cuts, beehives, french twists, page-boys, flips, and shag haircuts. In the sixties, I ironed my somewhat wavy hair straight. And hoping to look stylish with ease, I have had more than one permanent. None of the adventures in permanent waving increased the beauty or style of my somewhat wispy hair. But mostly, I wear and have worn styles with no names and little style. I aim for clean.


I was born with black hair that turned to a dark blond. For many years, I dyed my hair a lovely shade of auburn. As an adult, my natural hair color was a very dark brown. At age 26, I noticed a few gray strands of hair. I do not mind the gray hair so much. In fact, I think that having gray hair is rather humorous. Maybe because I was the youngest child in my family. The gray hair makes me mature or at least look mature. What I do NOT like is the two-tone effect of my gray hair. I do not have white hair interspersed with strands of with darker silver hair. As you can see from the back, I have a line of darker gray and white underneath that. In case you cannot find the glaring demarcation line of my two-tone hair, I have provided helpful learning aids (the red arrows.)I know, know that there are color remedies for this. However, even if I dyed my hair, I would be lax about keeping up with the dyeing, and then, I would have three-tone hair. Besides what I see, when I look in the mirror is lovely white hair. If it was all white, that would be grand.



28 comments:

Anonymous said...

How fun to see all your different styles as you were growing up. You don't really expect me to be able to see your head in that last one do you? I see the arrows fine...LOL

Pamela said...

Nothing looks "bad Hair" at all here...

see, you are one of those ladies with lovely silver that I was talking about on my bad hair notes.

Beccy said...

Your hair was lovely as a child. I agree with Susan, all we can see are the arrows. You made me laugh though!

Anonymous said...

I ironed my hair too! Did you ever sleep with rollers in your hair? The things we did. Geez. I really love the picture with the braids.

Anonymous said...

What the hell? You stuck a picture of Jane Withers in there! No fair!!

daddy d said...

But the old guy has hardly any hair at all ... love MJD through out the ages.

Sabrina said...

I love all the different names for the hairstyles. . I think I've yet to have a style with an official name.

Carol said...

I love the childhood photos. Very nostalgic. Or vintage. Or classic. That's it; classic!

Gina said...

Your childhood pictures are beautiful. What a pretty girl!

My MIL has the same philosophy about gray hair as you.

Biddie said...

You were such a gorgeous baby! I LOVE the photos. I don't see any bad hair evidence in these photos. Sorry.

molly said...

I was so glad when styles turned natural and the pressure was off to constantly "set" your hair in those medieval torture devices known as curlers. I also go for clean, and a good cut, and completely bypass the whole bottle scene. If the white hair turns people off why blondes are a dime a dozen... Go have an intelligent conversation with one of them!

ChrisB said...

I loved your hair journey, you reminded me of pin curls, come to think of it I think that was how one of my hair styles was created. I know what you mean about the greying process. I'm salt and pepper (bit too much salt for my liking) and I'm not sure the highlighting helps. I have a friend who is silver white and it looks fabulous.

Princess Banter said...

I've always had black hair. And for as long as I can remember, I hated it because it looked just like every Asia girl's hair. When I grew older, it started getting lighter and lighter in lieu of my Spanish blood I would guess... now I dye my hair black to get back the jet blackness I used to have. And sadly, I couldn't anymore :( Why is it that we tend to like those that we can't have??? :P

Tink said...

I love the picture of you in the wine colored dress. That half smile is so mischievous and adorable. Thanks for sharing!!

Anonymous said...

I loved the braids. My hair was never long enough to accomplish that.

I had a girlfriend who went gray at 16. Actually, she had 1 gray hair for about every 10 black hairs. When I saw her at the age of 30 - it had reversed. But, her hair was LOVELY.

Anonymous said...

In spite of the "dead hair" (which indeed reminds me of a certain movie - LOL), what a lovely hair journey! :D

Luke said...

Two-tone hair is better than no-tone hair.

Tracey said...

Sweetheart, I hate to say this, but that hair looks terrific! Danged near perfect in my book.

Momentary Madness said...

Looking at those photos brings me back to my childhood. Things were simpler then I guess. Nice smile. Y:-) Paddy

Unknown said...

I'm hoping I skip the two-tone effect and inherit my grandmother's hair-turns-white-in-a-short-time gene.

Loved the older pics.

Jess Riley said...

Love the photo montage of "Hair Through the Years!"

You know, I cut my own hair much of the time, too. ;)

Margaret said...

I don't know how long this will work--but I signed up for a google name. What a pain. I love your hair. Mine is still dyed because I grayed like an Appaloosa. (in patches) I fought my hair for years and never won. (Hair:20+ Margaret:0)

Anonymous said...

Love all the pictures you included here, it tells a nice story :). I resurrected my dead hair with some "special shampoo" ;). The grays in my hair are so unevenly distributed, there's no such thing as a line of demarcation:/...it looks more like Cruella de Ville--NOT a good look outside the movies!

Your commentary helps paint a complete picture, and I giggled with the visual aids in the last picture :).

debi said...

I love all these pictures. My favorite picture is the braids. You look like Patty McCormick in "The Bad Seed". I mean that in a good way. Had 2 Colorado Bulldogs and I should not be making remarks. Love,deb

Pam said...

What a sweet-looking little girl you were. I too can't be bothered dying my grey hairs, but I'm definitely in the minority here in Scotland. Most older ladies go for the highlighted look, which is all right but must be awfully hard work.

Cazzie!!! said...

I just love seeing these images of you growing up. I will be getting a scanner in the near future and then I can put up a post similar to this of all the do's I have had!! My best friend is a haridresser. Throughout my Uni days, she was also attending tertiary school, a Hair College. She had to have a guinea pig right?? So that would me ME!!
My mum would pick me up from the train station and I would have to call her from the phone box to let her know what I was wearing and more importantly, what color or style my hair would be..less she walk right past me , LOL.
I LOVE white hair, my nana and pop had magical white soft as soft hair. My Pa, who I met up with last week in a lovely country town, has a grey/white/steel color going on. I have his hair, it is soft and wavy, just lovely. I couldn't help but touch it, it made him feel special :)
Bad hair is what I term "hospital hair", my patients get that :) Not you, you have lovely hair :)

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