September 14, 2011

You Foil Girl!

I'd just put the first foil in my hair when the electricity went off. It was mid-day but my bathroom is window-less. My first thought was "why now?" followed by "at least I only have one foil on my head."

The lights returned on so I commenced parting, coloring, and foiling my locks. When all goes well it's not an easy job. It involves a healthy learning curve in the area of dexterity and coordination. I wish will all my might I could take off my head for just thirty minutes to do the job. It would be oodles faster, drastically easier, and such a favor to myself. But no, not only can I not remove my nogggin but it's round as a bowling ball, further challenging my fine motor skills. In and of itself foiling is a troublesome reach for beauty and would you know that with all these challenges already at hand, the electricity continued to go off and on, a total of 20 times according to my calculations. With the coloring process already started, I had to continue.

I'm forever haunted with some degree of fear when doing my hair. As the chemicals work their magic, I usually succumb to at least one nightmarish dream. It usually comes in the vision of Frankenstein's wife when first introduced to her man. The first thing we see is that unmistakeable blond/white streak poking straight up out of her head. Sends chills up my spine every time. A truly horrid hairdo. This day prompted double concern because on top of intermittent illumination, the colors I use are opposite when mixed. The highlight is the dark cream and the darker hair color is the light cream. It was quite a brain twist trying to keep the colors opposite in my head while dipping from the light of a camping lantern.

I continued to persevere even as the fire alarm beeped with each power loss, the dogs and Dani repeatedly approached me because household items were turning off and on, Jimmy texted me from his photo shoot, and our neighbor ringing the doorbell on two separate occasions, I presumed checking to confirm we were having power trouble as well. Of course I couldn't answer the door. He's a man and I was alone, bra-less, and with foil popping out of my head in all directions. Not sure what he'd have thought had I answered the door but I was in no mood to give him a chance to react. I was busy overcoming repeated obstacles. I wouldn't have answered the door for anyone, man or woman, in that state of attire.

When time came to rinse my hair, I headed to the shower. Since the flow of water doesn't require electricity, nothing stood in my way this homestretch. Choosing the shower with a window, I turned on the light only to see if the power would fail again, which it did two more times. I kept good pace with the shampoo, cream rinse, and soap, all while praying no color faux pas had occurred during the silly cosmetic escapades. Rolling my hair in a towel, I exited the shower no worse for the wear. Surely all was fine. I had faith.

So how did it turn out? The power was fixed soon after and has been working just fine. Thanks for your concern.

Oh...you mean...how did the hair coloring turn out. Well, Frank's wife's image didn't make its appearance...immediately. I dried my hair and began to run the curling iron through it and all seemed well until I looked at the back, then there it was. A huge blond patch at the crown of my head. Apparently I grabbed too much hair in one spot. It looked like I had a blond baby peacock tail perched atop my head. The next day it caught Jimmy's attention so I figured something had to be done. Pulling out my coloring bag, it took only two foil strips to get rid of the bird. Now my hair is back to normal, ending the closest call I've ever had with my biggest nightmare.

It's easy to get caught up with our outer appearance. The best policy, however, is to do our best with what we've got and thank God for each blessed day. Christ doesn't care if we are gray, wrinkled, or a little pudgy around the edges. He loves us way more than that and only cares about what's inside our heart and whether we truly reflect Him.

With that in mind, how is your heart today? Focused on an outward facade or seeking greater faith? The older I get the more I see that our bodies are very fragile and only temporal. Putting energy into our appearance is fine, it just shouldn't take center stage.

Moral of the story: Keep God on the throne of your heart and feel free to foil girl!

"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." Hebrews 1:3

4 comments:

elaine @ peace for the journey said...

When I lost all my hair, others told me it would come back curly and with a different color.

Came back straight (as usual) and gray (figures). So I left it as is and will probably keep it short, at least for a while longer.

Through this season of loss, I've been better able to focus on the inward part and let go of some of the outward trappings. This doesn't mean I don't want to look pretty or in style, but there is less of a need in me to do so.

For the record, I run around braless as well. There's just less of a need these days:)!

Love you sister. I think you look great outwardly and inwardly. You wear our Father well.

peace~elaine

Andrea said...

Great post!
Examining my heart,
andrea

Cheryl Barker said...

Love the images you described here, Nancy :) You are brave to do all that foiling and coloring on your own!

I've been lucky -- haven't had to start coloring my hair yet. The past couple of years, I've had a lot of gray creep in, but I'm thinking at this point, I'll just let my hair go gray naturally. We'll see... :)

nanette@momneverstops.com said...

I was laughing at your story as I read it - you did a great job writing it. Glad your hair turned out - it scares me everytime I try to have it colored. I once had a friend (with a degree in hair care) do mine and it did not work so good. I was trying something new before my husband returned from a business trip. Thankfully, she was able to fix it about an hour before he arrived!