Hair raising
Posting about my Mom and Mole Neck Lenny brought back a lot of hair related memories. My Mom went to cosmetology school when we were kids, or rather, her guinea pigs. Yes I was the only girl in 7th grade sporting a rat tail- and not at my request. Sara had a funky asymmetrical skater do that was pretty cool, and way beyond the sophistication level of most 6th graders in our small town. We had perms, trims that turned into major makeovers, the works.
My favorite Mom hair story though involves my old friend Leslie. She came over one night so Mom could highlight her long, thick, dark brown hair. Hair that had never been processed in any way. So it took a really long time to pull it all through the little cap, especially because we were all enjoying chatting and cocktails. Then Mom applied the chemicals and we waited for Leslie to process and chatted and snacked and had a couple more cocktails.
Then Leslie says something along the lines of “Is it supposed to be this hot? It burns.” We rush over and Mom pulls off the little plastic bonnet thing and looks at me with horror on her face- Leslie’s “honey colored” highlights were stark white. She looked like a skunk and the bride of Frankenstien’s daughter. Her hair was literally smoking! We pulled the cap off and Leslie went to wash her hair out- she had no idea what had happened. We kept telling her how great it looked! Very fashion forward. At this point it’s nearly midnight so we were trapped! Leslie took one look at herself and started crying. Mom got on the phone with 1800Clairol who weren’t much help, then made an emergency run to an all night drugstore.
Mom eventually fixed Leslie’s hair, but it never looked the same. Especially all the little broken pieces that literally burned off. I’m pretty sure this incident is what caused our friendship to go sour. Last I heard she moved to Maine. Thank goodness Mom’s not licensed there!
*Just to clear up some things…I was about 22 and Leslie was about 20 when we burned her hair off. My Mom did not let me have cocktails as a kid. I had to be certified legal before drinking in her house.
Bless Your Heart 