Thursday, October 15, 2015

Purple Haze


My new hair stylist, Jo, at Savage Beauty on Burgundy Street in the Bywater, is a great colorist. So the second time I went to her, I told her I wanted to do something new.

Thought born blonde, I think my hair's natural color reverted to a mousy brown when I was in my thirties. I began coloring my hair in my forties, and because I lived in Los Angeles, a place with high standards for artificial beauty, I was lucky to have had some great stylists coloring my hair (Thanks, Tina!!!) and prolonging my personal mythology as a Blonde.

But now I'm up for changes, here in New Orleans. Jo went through her swatch book, and held samples up to see how they looked with my skin and eyes. And she came up with the idea of going to a kind of cool-violet version of brown, in highlights and lowlights.

And then I said, well, I was thinking maybe of also having a vivid color, too.

How about purple? she asked.


When she was done, I looked at myself in the mirror. It looked like I was standing in the light thrown by a stained-glass window - my hair dappled with overlays of vivid color that shift, fade, and deepen, depending on the cast of the light.

It's pretty cool, I think.


It's hard to get a good photo. Sometimes it's strikingly apparent, sometimes you can hardly tell. It looks best in bright or harsh light; the sun or maybe LEDs. The house we live in has shitty mirrors, and shitty lighting around the shitty mirrors. So I find myself seeking affirmation in my car's rear-view mirror, in store windowpanes, and in restaurant bathrooms.

It looks pretty good.


It goes with my new boots, too.


4 comments:

  1. That's a great look for you, subtly sassy.

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  2. Absolutely and positively NO COMMENT!

    Having been married for 51 years, like an actor in one of those long-running shows, I have learned and honed my lines perfectly, "You look gorgeous, darling!" Anything less and Armageddon threatens.

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  3. LOVE LOVE LOVE the boots! And the purple too, but the boots make me swoon!

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  4. The more I see fun hair like this, the more I think I might try it! You look mah-veh-lous!

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