Because it had been too long since I’d heard the “F” word shrieked in public, I decided it was time to take a trip downtown on the train. OK, I’m kidding. That wasn’t my real reason for going downtown. But I can seriously go for weeks at a time without hearing it bellowed in public, and sure enough—I swear, you can count on this the way you can count on, oh, the sun setting in the west—fifteen minutes after the doors of the train slid closed, someone bellowed it. Not just the word all by itself, mind you. It was preceded by the word “mother,” which was immediately preceded by the words, “I saw you lookin’ at me!” and all of this seemed to be directed at no one in particular, though I’m not entirely certain of this, as the person who shrieked them got off the train right after that, having apparently gotten it out of his system. (I can pretty much guarantee you no one was “lookin’” at him at this point. You never, never, never make eye contact on the train. If you do, it’s at your peril.) Clearly, MUNI brings out the best in all of us.
I tell you, when you think about it, public transportation is quite an exhilarating little gamble. You pay your $1.50 (that’s what it costs here) to board the train, the doors slide closed, and for the duration of your journey, you might be sealed up in what amounts to a rolling Fellini film, and good luck to you. Then again, as every strata of San Francisco society rides the train, you might have an uneventful ride, or end up sitting next to the man of your dreams. I have sat alongside a dreamboat or two. More likely the man carrying a giant bag of aluminum cans and dressed in what appears to be an elaborate harness made out of duct tape will sit next to you and mutter about how George Bush and the 49’ers are conspiring to send the world to hell in a hand basket. This, in fact, was my experience on this day. He did pause once
in his mutterings to offer me a bite of his burrito. (“No thanks. I just had breakfast.”)
(How about that? I’m digressing before I’ve even begun. )
Anyhow, the occasion of my train trip downtown was to get a haircut. I have about forty pounds of hair, and it’s sentient. Well, once again I jest, but it really is rather willful. It’s pretty good hair, mostly, but when it gets too long my face looks like this little peanut peering out of a shrubbery, and the hair must be pruned. I love my hair salon—I blogged about this before, back when no one knew I had a blog—because it’s a bit posh (if you go by prices and the skill of the stylists) but there’s no attitude whatsoever, and you see all ages and genders and types of people sitting in the chairs. It’s a big sunny loft and they play good, eclectic music—it was Led Zeppelin on this day, and Led Zeppelin for me is always a random good omen. When I’m sitting in the stylist chair, I like to watch the other clients as they gesture to their heads sort of shyly and hopefully, explaining what they want to look like, while their stylists nod sagely and sympathetically. We all have our measure of vanity, and it’s rather touching. It’s fun to watch everyone walk out looking brand new, too.
I got a great haircut, as I always do from my stylist, and she blow-dried me within an inch of my life. I was superfoxy for a couple of days. But then I washed it. This morning, I looked in the mirror this morning and thought… “Huh. That’s funny. I remind myself of someone. Or is it something? Who could it be…what could it—Oh dear God. I look like my eighth grade picture.” This was alarming enough to get me to scramble for the hair balm, and I rubbed some in and spent some time pushing my hair this way and that. In a few moments I looked more sophisticated and less jiffy-popped. Sometimes you just really have to show a new haircut who’s boss.
Kathy K. sent me a great video link (How did you know I needed a blog topic, Kathy??), and it sent me down memory lane, pondering the things we do for beauty, and what we think of as beautiful. (You should check it out. It's fascinating.) I have a few memories: my first eyeshadow, which was iridescent sky blue and came in a tube, and which I stroked over my lids with a liberal finger in Junior High. It was probably made by Bonne Bell. It did nothing whatsoever to enhance my looks, but there’s something very sensual about stroking on color, an almost guilty pleasure: “you mean I get to draw on my own face?” That sort of thing. I eventually learned to apply makeup without looking like a tart, and to choose colors that “suited” me. I never really grew to rely on makeup. That’s waaaaay too much work. And I do go out of the house without it on occasion, but never if I’m planning to go the grocery store where they have the cute checker. He warrants lipstick, at the very least. Not that I ever intend to do anything about said checker. I just, frankly, want him to admire my shiny lips. But truthfully, if I wear makeup…well, I realize I wear it primarily for me.
I’ve had a few beauty disasters over the years, most notably when I had to wake up my dad one morning (he worked at night, so he slept during the day) to cut me free of the curling iron. It had teeth, you see, and I’d rolled my bangs all the way up in it—a grave mistake. It wouldn’t unroll. No matter how I tugged or pulled or plucked at it. I went to school (high school) late that day and missing half my bangs. I wept a little. Freaking feathered hair. I could never get my feathers to lay flat against my head, a la Farrah. They always stuck out like…the roof on a pagoda.
It’s a given that we’re all beautiful and memorable in our own unique ways. (No, don’t argue with me. LOL. I insist. I find you all extremely beautiful.) But what are your memories of makeup, and what’s your relationship to it now? Did you wear it because everyone did, or just because you liked it, or because you thought boys would notice you?? Do you have a particular weakness for lipstick or eyeshadow or some other little item, or the free gifts with purchase? :) Or could you not care less? Do you have any memorable beauty disasters to share? When’s the last time you changed your hair??
(P.S. Just learned BATS was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award! Also, if you feel like it, go to the All About Romance Annual Reader Poll to vote for BATS in various categories. I just noticed it's consistently in several of them, including Best Romance of the Year and Best Couple, etc. Yay!)
To this day I still hate make up. I never wear it, never wore it and I still don't see myself wearing it in the future. However, there was one day I did, because I had to. It was this one Girl Scout meeting where they invited a Mary Kay rep there. Still not really sure what that had to do with any badges or what have you, but whatever. And they went through different stuff and I had make up on my face by the end of the night. Took it off as soon as I got home. LOL I'm just someone who thinks it's yucky -- but I'm very big on chapstick! :)
My hair got cut this past Sunday actually, after what could very well be two or so years of not getting it cut. :) I do my bangs regularly, but not the rest. Can't see it. But ultimately, it's still the same sort of deal, so I can put it up in a ponytail. :)
Lois
Posted by: Lois | January 16, 2007 at 12:20 PM
Ah, Lois, you low-maintenance gal, you!! You reminded me of the RWA conference in Dallas a few years ago -- a Mary Kay convention was being held in the same hotel. Talk about a sea of women!! LOL. Actually, I was wondering who all those women with preternaturally beautiful skin were, and then I got lost on the way back to my hotel (I was staying in a different hotel than the one the conference was held in) and ran into one of them, who was also lost -- very nice woman -- who told me why she was there. You're like a few other women I know -- they decided on a hairdo that worked for them early on and that's the one they've been loyal to their entire lives. I'm into changing it up every now and then. Though I seem to be committed to "long."
Do you cut your own bangs?? My sister and I once gave each other haircuts. I got a good one; she got diagonal bangs. LOL. I can't cut a straight line.
Posted by: Julie Anne Long | January 16, 2007 at 03:31 PM
Congratulations Julie! That's terrific news about BATS; well deserved too. ^.^
As for the blog topic, umm... I'm psychic?? *grin* No, not really. I get email & coupons from P&G and they had the link to the video. Having three daughters, and with the emphasis on skinny-minnies in society, etc (I'm brain dead now after a whole day at the hospital and can't think of anything else other than that) I thought it was something that you might, well enjoy is too strong a word...anyway..I'm babbling now, so I'll stop. LoL
As for makeup, I've had a hate-like relationship with it since I turned about 16 or 17 in High school. My parents decided that maybe I should think about trying makeup (I have somewhat sallow skintones and little other colour) and I was so not into it ~ didn't want to carry a purse either ~ so I was greatly offended, as only a budding adult / teenager can get with parents. Nada.
It wasn't until I started working full-time once I graduated that I thought I'd give it a try, but I always minimalized it; just enough so that it looked like I didn't need it and very little else. I'm so not a girly-girl or even very "feminine" and the least I could get by with, that was it. But not lipstick, ever. I still can't wear it. My lips always feel like they dry out and I've just never liked using it, nor fingernail polish either. And I've tried it numerous times, but I just can't stand wearing it. Strange? Oh, yeah.
As for my hair, that's another thing where 'the least work that it entails' is my motto. Although a few months ago I did go back to getting it cut short; this after 15 years of having it [what for me passes as long] just-shy-of-my-shoulders long. Then I got really tired of it; very wilfull stuff, hair. It curls and flips however it wants to; hot in the summer, in the way the rest of the time; I'd had enough. As for the response: the kids that I babysit, their parents, people at church and my daughters school ~ they all loved it, a lot. That was cool!
My husband, he was so-so...didn't really matter one way or the other to him (or maybe he was just really, really smart and didn't say anything. LoL), but my kids! Oy; especially my older daughters. Both of them were shaking their heads ~ for weeks! ~ and saying, 'Why so short??'.
Ah well, I was happy, the people other than family *really* liked it, and for the rest, big deal...my hair, my way! *grin*
Kathy
Posted by: Kathy K | January 16, 2007 at 04:03 PM
Julie, congratulations on the nomination.
Funny that your blog should be about hair because earlier I made an appointment for tomorrow to get a haircut. I haven't cut my hair in AGES, and it's gotten so long and scraggly. I have really thick hair, so it requires effort to make it look decent, which I usually just don't have time for. What is the name of your salon? I usually go to Supercuts on Fillmore. It's inexpensive, and I think they do a pretty good job.
I am a pretty low-maintenance person, so I don't wear makeup unless it's a special occasion, and even then, it's usually just lipstick. I never wore makeup in high school--couldn't be bothered with it.
Beauty disasters? Once I got a terrible haircut before eighth grade started. I looked like a boy with super short hair, which I don't remember requesting. It was a disaster, and after that I was wary to let anyone cut my hair.
Posted by: Diana | January 16, 2007 at 05:36 PM
First, a couple of things off-topic: I'm even *more* in love with Hugh Laurie after his Golden Globe acceptance speech last night. LOL. And I'm *beside* myself with excitement that American Idol starts again tonight. :) Ah, it's the little things.
Kathy, you were at the hospital?? I hope you and yours are all right!! And re parents and their "suggestions" about our looks, especially when we're teenagers...argh. Talk about embedding a complex! And it's funny -- I do like lipstick. Then again, I have a pretty big palette to paint upon. LOL. I own very few lipsticks now, however, ever since I realized I was essentially buying the same two colors over and over in different brands. But I totally had a thing about nail polish for years, too. I couldn't stand the feel of it on my nails -- it felt like my nails couldn't breathe! Probably similar to how you feel with lipstick on. Now I like getting simple manicures now and again, because I like how my hands look when they're groomed. And i've discovered my girly side...I do like pink now, after having soundly rejected it after living with an aggressively pink bedroom during my childhood. LOL. So I like to paint my nails a very, very subtle pink. I have a friend who doesn't understand why I bother, because it's barely a color. LOL. But *I* know it's there.
And one of the more nerve-wracking parts of debuting a new haircut is the scrutiny of everyone around you. LOL. I remember when I had an office job, and I came in one day with brand new short hair. You'd have thought it was the most exciting thing that had happened in years. LOL. Caused a small uproar. But it doesn't take much to entertain an office. :) Wavy hair is often very cute when it's short -- mine pretty much waves all over the place when it's short. :) I bet you look adorable.
Diana, it must be grooming season. LOL. Nothing like a new haircut to make you feel brand new. I go to Cowboys & Angels, and I have for a long, long time (with time off during times when I was broke. LOL.) They rock! It's a bit expensive, but I'm addicted now...Firstly, you get a lovely little neck/shoulder rub when they wash your hair, and I've never had anything other than a fabulous haircut that's easy to style (once I get used to it), falls wonderfully and grows out in a reasonable way. My hair's long and grows like a weed, but I can usually go six months or so before I start to look really disreputable. :). Right now mine's layered, so I can just leave it be and wear it wavy for that just rolled out of bed look or blow it (or flatiron it) straight if I need to look decent in a photo. :). I like it wavy, though. GL with your haircut tomorrow! :) Tell me how it turns out. LOL.
Your story of your eighth grade haircut brought back memories. It's funny to think about being little, for instance, and that ne else could decide your hair fate. I had hair down past my butt when I was about ten, and my mom decided I had to have it all cut off to almost-boy length before summer. I was traumatized. LOL. Oh man, I hate it when they cut hair too short. Funny how personal hair becomes, how through the ages humans have relied on it as an expression of self, politics, social class, etc.
And thanks for the congrats re the RT nom, girls!!
AI is on! Off I go. :) I hope you guys watch it so we can compare notes. LOL.
Posted by: Julie Anne Long | January 16, 2007 at 07:58 PM
As someone who was always teased by her older brothers, I did anything and everything to cover up my face. I didn't really want to wear make-up so much, I just didn't want to be me either.
The hair, I'm fickle on. I'm picky but not to the point that I sit in front of a mirror for hours ensuring every strand is in the right spot.
And someone is using their ESP, because I just got my hair cut as well! Of course my hair is so long that I had to stand in the middle of the floor while my stylist cut it. I was really glad when she got about half way finished with layering because I could sit down again lol. Now I feel like I've lost about 20 pounds.
Also, what is up with stylists thing with the hair dryer? It's not an attack weapon, I swear!! Actually, she wasn't bad, just got a bit rough with the brush while drying it. Thank goodness I have a hard head lol.
I've kept my hair long for most of my life, but after a horrid coloring issue, my hair went from mid-back to mid-ear. Who knew that color (the junk you buy at the store, not a salon person, like it should have been) actually has an expire date. I didn't know this at the time. So I bought three boxes (long hair remember) and went about coloring my hair. Now I had done this a million times, this exact color and it wasn't no big deal. Until I washed it out and attacked it with the hair dryer. My hair was gray! I was 21 and too young for gray!!! It looked like I plucked a crayon from the box and colored my hair.
With tears in my eyes, I rushed to the nearest phone and called a hair shop. Being new to the town, I didn't know I went to the worst one there was, uggg. I told her to cut off the gray, which was about to my shoulders. I ended up with a cut that would do the military proud! Needless to say, I cried for several days.
Did I learn my lesson? Not really, I still colored my own hair after that and for several years after that. But about 5 years ago I stopped coloring my hair and went natural. So now I have long dishwater colored hair and a few hints at gray. Oddly enough, I'm proud of my gray and am wishing it would hurry lol.
BTW Julie, I was at that conference (only for the booksigning) and there were made-up women EVERYWHERE! Cakes and layers of make-up everywhere.
And congrats! I know this is small fries, but you've been nominated at our little author awards over at RI too.
Hope to see you this year in Dallas, with my little bit of non-blue eye shadow and lightly glossed lips (yes for this type stuff, I wear make-up, just not alot). I have to do something with my very sickly looking skin, if I don't I look like a ghost.
Ps. sorry this ran long, couldn't help it.
Posted by: Haven Rich | January 17, 2007 at 04:49 AM
With regard to my stay at the hospital yesterday, my 19 year old daughter has had lifelong bladder and kidney problems. Yesterday she was in for day surgery for a couple of very involved and unpleasant tests; thank heavens she was put under for them. We're actually hoping that the specialist will decide to remove her left kidney 'cause then she'll pretty much be over the problem.
When you said that 'it felt like my nails couldn't breathe', yep that's it exactly! Neither lipstick or nail polish ~ applied the usual way, I'm not mixing them up or anything LoL ~ just don't work for me. With nail polish, the ends of my fingers feel too heavy or something. [Does that sound as weird as I think it does?? LoL]
And with my shorter hair, as well as suiting me better, it's soooo much easier to wash and wear; I hate fussing with hair, makeup, clothes....*sigh* I think when they were passing out the "girl" genes in my family, my sisters got mine ~ I sure don't have any, or at least not much!
Have a great day everyone! It looks like it's going to be sunny today. ^.^
Kathy
Posted by: Kathy K | January 17, 2007 at 07:40 AM
That is so strange, because for me, when my hair was shorter, I had to do more with it. If I didn't it looked horrid. So I had to blow dry it a certain way and curl other areas just so I wouldn't look like I had spiked my hair.
With it long, I can jump out of the shower, run a brush through it and then wrap it up. Takes a whole 5 minutes to do my hair.
Now if I'm going to do the fancy thing, I have quick hot rollers, wrap them up, get dressed and can be ready in less than 15 minutes (no make-up of course, that ads 5 minutes lol).
Posted by: Haven Rich | January 17, 2007 at 07:48 AM
LoL... that's so funny how it's different about the hair.
My hair has a natural curl / wave to it, but it mostly comes out at the ends. When my hair gets longer it tends to go all over and I'm forever putting it in an elastic just to keep it out of my face...that's probably another reason that I like it shorter.
Of course I'm totatlly amazed that *anyone* can do something with their hair as quickly as you can...like I said, I must have missed a few girl genes somewhere. LoL
Posted by: Kathy K | January 17, 2007 at 09:30 AM
Oh, Kathy. I'll be thinking good thoughts for your daughter -- sending white light her way, as we say in California. :) (Or maybe that's just Bay Area-speak??) And yeah, the heavy thing, re the nails and nail polish -- that's exactly the feeling I had!! It really took some getting used to. And re the short hair -- I think it's easier to have short wavy hair nowadays, too, because there are now so bloody many products we can use to tame it. :)
It's beautifully sunny here, too, and it's warming up just a bit. It's been COLD. Not just *San Francisco* cold, but genuinely *cold.* LOL. In the 40's or so, in the 20's in some parts of the Bay Area at times. It's really weird to absolutely NEED leggings on under my jeans and a hat and gloves on when I go outside -- it's painful without them. A new experience for me. I tend to walk everywhere, like to a pet food store around 15 blocks away, and it's been just too cold to think of doing that.
Hey Haven -- that's so funny!! Why are we all getting our hair cut?? Is it a "a new year, a new you" kind of thing?? LOL. I'm nominated on RI?? Wheee!! LOL. I love you guys, so that's tremendously exciting. Recognition from sort of "grass roots" reader sites like yours is really gratifying, because you KNOW you guys are hard-core readers. :)
I seriously once had a friend who had to create practically a *structure* of her hair. She's quite beautiful, but this hairdo involved tons of hot rollers, hair spray, and an architectural degree. LOL. Just kidding. God, waiting for her to get READY though. I'm with Kathy on the getting ready fast thing, too, Haven-- you have to teach me how to use the hot rollers that fast!!
Re stylists and the hair dryer -- that's a crackup!! If you have any wave, they *have* to be aggressive. Mine's like that, too -- you get this sort of *whack* to the head with the brush then they pull the hair firmly out straight to dry it. You can see the steam rising from my head. LOL.
And man!!! That hair disaster!! I had no idea re the store-bought dye, either!! Talk about trauma!! LOL. I've had my hair highlighted before, and I keep trying to talk my sister into having it done professionally (she uses the boxes) -- because even though it *seems* expensive, it lasts longer and looks better, so it works out to be more cost-effective in the long run. (that's me -- vain AND practical. LOL.) Some people look fab with gray -- isn't Helen Mirren gorgeous, for instance? My gray ones grow in curly. :) Yeesh.
You'd *better* come see me in Dallas at the signing this year!! I'll be wearing makeup and nail polish, no doubt. Full grown-up regalia. LOL.
Posted by: Julie Anne Long | January 17, 2007 at 10:49 AM
I'm still waiting so I can sign up for the event...and umm find out who I can bribe into being my roommate lol.
The only other RI lady going is Lacey and she's rooming with her CPs. So I'm umm *pout, whine* left alone lol.
And shoot yeah I'm going to come bug you, I mean see you! How could I not.
And although it cracked me up about the hair drying mention you made, it's ohhh sooo true. A person could get whiplash from that kind of treatment hehe. Thankfully when the gal did mine she wasn't into that melting your scalp kind of treatment. But she was into the in-bedding the prongs of the hairbrush into my head.
But it was nice to be pampered just a tad. Since I really am a no-fuss type gal.
Another topic Julie, start shopping for RWA formal (or dress). I've got a semi-traumatic story for that one...already!
Posted by: Haven Rich | January 17, 2007 at 12:52 PM
Well, my haircut went well, and it only cost $16 plus tip. :)
I remember another hair disaster from my past. Before my freshman year of college, I had bleached my hair for the first time and dyed it purple. After the roots started growing out and the purple washed out, I didn't bother dying the rest of my hair back to its natural black color. I look back at pictures of myself with half black, half blondish-orange hair and cringe.
Posted by: Diana | January 17, 2007 at 07:02 PM
So congrats on the new haircut, Diana!! Now you're freshly foxy like the rest of us. :) THat's a great price, too!! I'm not even going to tell you what mine cost. LOL. Wow, and you were one of those brave people who dyed their hair way back when! It reminds me: I had a couple of friends who'd decided to be Punks, and one stopped because it was just too much work to maintain a nice upright mohawk (she's a real estate agent today), and the other had a mohawk and kept getting pulled over by the police in our suburban hometown for totally random, picayune things, and he was a pretty normal guy (well, relatively speaking) apart from the mohawk. And the six piercings in each ear. :)
Posted by: Julie Anne Long | January 18, 2007 at 09:36 AM
My mom was NOT happy the day I bleached and dyed my hair. She was outside the bathroom knocking on the door, wanting to know what my friend and I were doing in there (she was helping me dye my hair). I think my mom thought I'd turn bad once my hair color changed.
Posted by: Diana | January 18, 2007 at 05:34 PM
WoW Diana, that's a great price...and to have a haircut that you like, even better!
I have to go for a trim soon, my bangs are starting to get too long, ie. to my eyes, and I can't stand it. That's the thing with having short hair, especially when it grows fast ~ you're (or, rather I!) am always having to get it cut again. Ah well, it could be worse!
Yesterday it was warm-ish and sunny, today it's all gray again and chilly. Winter, you can't do anything with it!
Sorry to hear that the weather in SF isn't nicer...aren't you guys in CA supposed to have warm weather? *Just kidding*...there was a picture in the paper the other day with icicles hanging off oranges still on the trees...that's terrible that winter seems to have hit California with a vengeance. Hope it's over before too much more damage occurs.
Take care Julie and Diana!
Posted by: Kathy K | January 19, 2007 at 08:22 AM
That's pretty funny, Diana!! Decorating our own bodies (dying hair, piercing things) seems to be our way of declaring official independence when we're young. And it's funny how controversial HAIR can become. As immortalized in the song "Hair," which I totally love. LOL.) Haircuts/color are often a language we use to tell other people who we are. It's also sort of a way of ushering a new phase of life. I remember when I had a boyfriend who liked my hair very, very long and bone straight...we broke up, and I cut it. "Change your hair, change your life," as the French say. :)
And yeah, Kathy, it's been a pretty strange winter here. The citrus crop is pretty much ruined, which is a bit heartbreaking. It's been very, very cold. It's supposed to be a bit warmer this weekend. We'll see. Can you trim your own bangs?? I know a few people who can do their own quite skilfully. Me, I'd either put out an eye in the attempt or end up with a slanty row of hair across my forehead. :)
I might post something fun to look at a little later today. :) Meanwhile, stay warm, everyone!!
Posted by: Julie Anne Long | January 19, 2007 at 09:32 AM