The thing with coloring your hair is the minute it hits you, you have to do it right that instant. One minute I was on my way to pick up my kid from school, and the next thing I knew I was on my way to Trinoma to buy a color kit.

I stopped lightening my hair this year. It was kind of sudden and not so sudden. I’ve been contemplating on going au naturelle but my friends say that dark hair actually makes you look older. “Who cares,” I said. “I’m really getting old.”

Ok, they were right. It was a disaster waiting to happen. All I had meant to do was give my hair a break from all those chemicals I’ve been using since high school. Besides, I’m a bit alarmed on how much hair I’m losing each day. I see my hair in the shower, on the pillow, in the car and on the floor. They’re all over. I still wonder why I even have hair.

So I bought a color kit from Healthy Options. The kind that says all natural. No ammonia. No hydrogen peroxide. Nothing. How can it lighten my hair in the first place? Mind over matter? Will power? I still have to wait and see. Salons will tell you home kits don’t work but they do. Just don’t expect too much. You might miss a spot or two. Or your roots might appear lighter which almost always happens to the best of us. But they work. Trust me. =) Besides salon services are more expensive.

The last time I colored my hair, it was not successful. An hour passed and I totally forgot that I had a corrosive chemical on my hair. I dashed to the comfort room to wash it off, but knowingly I knew it was too late. The result. I could pass for one of my kid’s Caucasian dolls.

I didn’t panic but the remarks of my family and friends, you would think I was adopted or alien. Like giving me ‘who is this person and why is she talking to me’ look. Oh well, that’s the price of ‘blondeness.’ Being stared at like some trampish thing. Since that incident, I vowed to stay away from boxes that carry faces and hair not of my Asian race.

Until last week, when I bought that natural and organic coloring product. Guess what the shade is. Natural light blonde. This girl never learns her lesson.

photo:blonde/brunette by comicstriptease