A few weeks ago I shared something I had written during my Friday evening writers’ group meeting. Someone brings two prompts, one fiction and one non-fiction, and we have ten minutes to write something, which we then read to the others. There’s no critique, just a fun exercise. I think most of what I’ve written is total rubbish—although the others have written brilliant stuff—but sometimes I come up with something I think you might enjoy, so I’ve decided to share them with you occasionally. They’ll always have this headline, so if you have absolutely no interest in my Friday night ramblings, you can just skip them. Here’s the first one—this is non-fiction and came out of something that had been annoying me that day.

Prompt: I may not know the outcome but I want to know the process.

Honest to God, I thought I was blond. I’ve been what I thought was blond for forty years.

At first I had the colour done at the hairdresser, but I stopped that because of the process. It was too damned long. Giving up one  Saturday morning every month to sit for three hours through fiirst the bleaching and then the colouring, all the while breathing deeply of a variety of foul and noxious chemicals. And at that time I was a low level employee in a small company, and this process cost me a fair chunk of my salary.

But although I hated the process, I did love the outcome. Something shifted in my personality when I suddenly changed from mousy brown to platinum blond. Of course I was 22 then, so there was no question it was blond and not white.

Then I decided to try it at home. I bought some cheap product in the drugstore that had to be sprayed on. It was hard to manipulate, so I persuaded my teenage brother to do it for me. It came out a fascinating shade of pea green. So although the process was much easier, the outcome wasn’t acceptable.

I’ve been doing this myself now with the same product and shade for approximately 40 years, going along in the happy belief that I was a blond. It’s the same colour as that first time that was obviously platinum blond, but now apparently (so I’ve been told by two friends this week) people are seeing it as white or silver!

So what’s the difference? Well obviously it’s the face underneath! My 22 year-old face naturally projected platinum blond, but the face of today apparently says white. Something must be done. I must find a different product or a different colour, but how will it turn out?

I already know the process, but I want to know the outcome.

___

FYI, I did try another colour, and everyone agrees I am once again a blond!