I know this is going to sound crazy. And it’s not something I would normally do. But it’s done and you should know about it. I allowed myself to embrace my petty self for well over a week. Not just be disgruntled about something, but I allowed it to affect my actions.
You’ve been petty before, right? That moment when someone honks their horn so you’ll speed up and you slow down. Or you give someone the finger for no good reason. Those moments where you don’t care about the consequences. You feel slighted and you want to get back at the person…or thing… stupid chair.
For me, my petty actions stop at making faces, showing them the finger, or mummers of discontent. It lasts maybe a minute. Maybe 5 minutes. On occasion, I’ll come home and complain to my husband and anyone who will listen. Rarely have I actually acted on it. That is exactly what I did this past week.
I have spite hair.
Over a week ago we had my son’s birthday party. My in-laws came which is great. I love it when the grandparents show up. My son loves the attention and my in-laws get to interact with him and see how much he’s grown.
My mother-in-law came over and gave me a big hug. She told me “I love the color of your hair.”
“Oh,” I said, “well it’s really faded.”
“Well, this is from someone who has seen it when you’ve first had your hair done.”
I don’t know if it was her tone or if I was in a weird mood, but it sounded like she didn’t like my hair when it’s first colored.
I have natural light brown hair and I dye it a bright red. It’s fun. I love it. And usually (money permitting) I get it re-dyed every 8 weeks. I skipped the last color appointment because there were talks off layoffs at work. So 12 weeks later my hair was a faded orange with roots showing.
I’m not a big fashion person. I live in jeans and t-shirts. I don’t wear makeup. I don’t have a lot of shoes. I paint my nails at home when I think about it. But I spend money on my hair. It is THE fashion thing I do.
And I love my mother-in-law. If I didn’t value her opinion, I probably wouldn’t think twice about those words.
But something shifted inside of me when I heard that comment. It really rubbed me the wrong way. And then later she referred to me as an old woman! I know she was talking to a six-year-old, but really? Lady, you are 70.
See? Petty. Petty, petty, petty. It’s STILL bothering me. I’m still irrational.
That was the moment I decided to do something different with my hair. Something I’ve always wanted to do. Purple.
Now I don’t want to ruffle any feathers (get fired) at work, so I picked out a peekaboo style. Go brown on top with purple underneath. And my stylist was on board.
And as these things happen, my hair didn’t go exactly as planned. This is what happens when you change your hair out of spite. I was late for my appointment. But really, I was early.
A week early. I was so excited to change my hair I didn’t check the date. My stylist said she had time to fit me in. However, she was running behind (as always, I don’t know a hairdresser that doesn’t fall behind) so she took a little short cut to see how it would work. And I agreed to it. Not her fault. I was 100% willing to try it.
When she uncovered my hair I knew it wasn’t the right color. I tried not to act surprised. I’m not sure I hid it well. I know my eyes were big. The brown is a darker brown than I imagined. Almost a black brown. She must have chosen darker brown to cover the orange.
And the purple doesn’t show. I can’t see it in the mirror. Other people can find it, but it blends so well with the brown.
Really, it doesn’t look bad and my stylist plans to bring out the purple at my next appointment. But at Thanksgiving, I will have dark brown hair while I stare down my mother-in-law.
All in all, this isn’t the worst thing someone has done in a petty moment, but it is big for me. And as I write this it sounds unreasonable. It is unreasonable, yet I did it. Goodbye bright red, hello dark brown and, hopefully, purple in December.
So tell me what you think of my new color. And you might as well be honest. I mean, what am I going to do? Change my hair color again? 😆
