Thursday, September 27, 2007

Green With Envy

I've always wanted to make my hair to be some kinda wild and crazy colour so when my girlfriend, L, asked if I wanted to dye my hair I jumped at the chance. She has a history of doing crazy things to her hair. She reminded me the other day of how one time she came into work last summer with red hair, wearing a green shirt and I called her Christmas all day.

I chose green. I thought that would stand out nicely. "Oh yeah," L observed, "because you really need to draw more attention to yourself."

First we bleached my hair. It was at that point I discovered that I had a small scratch on my scalp. Ow. Then, since I decided to do this while I was on call, the brick went off. So there I am, sitting at my computer trying to fix my exploding work with bleach in my hair, wondering whether I'll finish before my hair dissolves completely. In the end, I did.

Upon rinsing the bleach out, I discovered that I look a lot more like my brother, who bleaches his hair, than I had previously realised. Yikes. In went the green, fast. After that, we bleached L's hair and dyed hers purple. We had been playing Katamari Damacy while the dye set (and when I wasn't dealing with being on call) and the theme music, which is somewhat strange and comical, was playing in the background while we sat and talked after finishing up. "I feel like I'm in some kind of cartoon," L said. For some reason, people seem to say that a lot around me.

The next morning I got in the elevator at work with a bunch of bankers in suits. The best reaction I've gotten so far was from one of them. He continued a conversation with his coworker as he walked into the elevator and looked at me. He looked away, still talking and then stopped mid-word and looked at me again for a good second before returning to his conversation.

The winner for best off-the-cuff response is my coworker Ed who sits next to me who said "I think my hue is off" and adjusted an imaginary knob on the side of his head upon seeing me.

My parents were surprisingly unaffected by it. I found that people who see me day-to-day took the longest to adjust.

What also surprises me is how people in Toronto don't seem used to it. I'll admit it's a pretty bright and unnatural colour, but seriously, it's Toronto; don't they see this kind of thing all the time? Evidently not. I've gotten every kind of reaction from the guy in the elevator to people who are trying really hard not to stare as they walk by.

Tonight on the way home from work I think I got the most vocal reaction from a stranger yet. A girl called out of a store that I walked past, "Nice hair!"

"Thanks!" I called back without stopping.

Her friend, who'd had her back to the door when I walked by, jumped out and shouted, "Oh yeah! It's green! That's awesome. Eat your vegetables."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

About time you posted something...

Love the chia-pet look ;-)