Blue

When I was seventeen, I helped a boyfriend dye his hair blue. Ever since then, I've wanted to dye my hair blue. Almost twenty years now.

I told my husband I wanted to dye my hair and his response was, "What's stopping you?"

My response to him was a bunch of excuses that weren't really why. I was the only thing stopping me.

So, we went to the store and bought temporary dye that was supposed to work with brunette hair and would last for fifteen washes. That night, I dyed my hair blue. It only took me twenty years to do it.

The color wound up being a strange denim blue with a gray tint I didn't like very much. Then, the first time I washed it most of the color washed out. I had blue hair for twelve hours.

A heartbroken me decided I want to have blue hair until I'm done having blue hair, so I went back to the store and picked up permanent dye that's made for brunette hair and dyed my hair again. It's now a dark royal blue that's almost blue-black in some light.

I love it, but I kinda want a brighter blue.

A brighter blue would require me to bleach my hair, then dye it. With the dye I have right now, I could use a stripper and go back to my natural color, but bleaching is permanent. It's a big commitment to coloring my hair, so I want to think about it more, but I'm leaning toward bleaching my hair.

I've always loved the bright rainbow colors on hair but have never been brave enough to color my own hair with them. Maybe now I will.

Every time I look in the mirror at my blue hair, I inch a little closer to bleaching. I think it's only a matter of time.

It's about time I do something I've always wanted to do.