There IS a moral to this hair tale!

Since yesterday morning, I have been sitting at my desk, wondering quietly what I could possibly have to blog about that would lighten the mood of the horrific news of the shootings at Virginia Tech. In their Engineering Department.

I work for a major Engineering and Construction firm who hires a lot of young college grads from Virginia Tech, and many of our Engineers have children that attend Virginia Tech ... so yesterday was a wee bit tense around the office as we waited for people to check in and tell us that their families were okay.

So this morning, when I read Shannon's hair tale over at Rocks in my Dryer, it put a smile on my face as it reminded me of my own shocking hair tragedy. And then, of course ... Shannon asked for other hair tales to help her feel better... so, Shannon ... this one's for you.

It all started several years ago, when I was diagnosed with Lime Disease. I'm not kidding ... it's totally true. One of the disease's nasty little symptoms is extreme exhaustion. As in ... you might fall asleep while sitting at a red light. In fact, there were many days where I would crawl under my desk and take a nap. My treatment entailed a pic line, a nasty dose of intravenous antibiotics for 30 days, and a missed trip to the beloved annual Youth Specialties Youth Leader Conference in Texas that I was soooo looking forward to going to.

Now, if you recall, I mentioned that one of my symptoms was extreme exhaustion. So, basically, I spent all my spare time sleeping. In fact, one time, I fell asleep at a table while we were waiting for our food to be served... but that's another story. Any way, since all my free time was spent sleeping, I didn't have time to go to the hair dresser, and since I was depressed about missing the Conference, I thought I'd color my hair a little bit ... you know ... just to pull out my natural highlights. Mistake number one.

I went to WalMart, and picked up a box of Clairol's Natural Instincts hair coloring with henna. Mistake number two. My hair is naturally brown with red highlights... so, anything with henna would naturally bring OUT the red in my hair. And ... it was permanent hair color. Mistake number three.

I went home, all excited to do my own hair. I applied the color, and went to sit on my bed until the time for the processing was done. Final mistake ... the one where I should have heard all the alarms ringing in the back of my head.

I fell asleep.

And left the color on waaaay tooooo loooong.

Can you say ... CARROT TOP??

Indeed, it was a very bad Sunday for me. AND ... I had to go to work the next day, so I thought I'd correct my own problem by going BACK to WalMart, getting another hair color darker than my natural one, and recoloring my already messed up carrot top head.

Do you think I learned from my first FOUR mistakes? No. I didn't. So, now, I had a charcoal colored head. I cried a lot of tears, and heard a lot of lectures from my adoring husband ... AND ... I had to pay a lot of money to have my hair corrected. Needless to say, I have a pretty hard head, and I did NOT learn my lesson. I tried to highlight my own hair at yet another time (cured from Lyme Disease, too!), and ... well ... I won't bore you with all the "expected" details, except to say ... I had to pay AGAIN to have it corrected.

So ... the moral of this hair tale?

For the love of everything that is good and natural don't.do.it.your.self.

Pay a professional. Seriously.

And, please keep the families of the students at Virginia Tech in your prayers. Thanks!