Girly things ...

There's nothing like feeling all girly every once in awhile. I spent time with my friend, Tanya yesterday. She has a salon in her house and beautified my hair for me. I've been fighting with this mass on my head this winter - it was so dried out. Oh, and then there is the whole gray hairs poking through to be recognized thing going on. I asked Max last week if he saw any problem with me approaching 70 and still having brown hair (yes, that's far, far away ... thank you very much). He replied with the proper response. "No?" (And yes, there was a question mark after his response because he wasn't sure what to say to me.)

I told you that my mother wasn't much for doing girly things with me while I was growing up. All of her kids had curly hair and believe it or not, the stylists she found for us when we were kids knew nothing about dealing with curly hair.

THIS is what happened to me the first time mom took me to a salon. I was devastated. Sure, worse things could have happened, but it was torture and I ended up looking like I was wearing a wig! Ok ... I really like the natural look. Oh, and by the way ... I was 12. The woman gave me the hairdo of a 40 year old woman. I was miserable. She had also coerced mom into doing this - pretty much implying that mom wouldn't have to spend money ... nope, mom was given a bill.





Well, that ended that excursion into girlyness. From that point forward, mom cut my hair ... and at some point, Carol actually got really good at dealing with my hair. Then, one day while at Insty-Prints, these wonderful ladies walked in to order printing for their new salon. We had so much fun with them, how could we not try out their services.

Nearly every other Saturday, Carol or I would come up with a reason to hang out at their salon ... manicures, pedicures, makeup applications, hair color, cut, aw heck - I even let the girl perm my hair one time. Oh, and there WAS the time that she bleached out a hank of my hair in back and put a wild purple in - just for the fun of it.

I learned how much I enjoyed this girly stuff. You can't imagine how sad I was when they went out of business ... but, Carol finally told me she wasn't cutting my hair any longer ... I had to find another stylist and I began to enjoy the experience of hanging out in with women ... doing girl stuff.

After my post (Thank you!) yesterday about the exciting bridal shower, I got a note from an old friend who told me that she had grown up with four brothers and had no concept of girly things. She had no preparation for the stuff she would have to deal with as she faced life.

This morning I washed all of the product out of my hair and let it dry ... all of the colors are vibrant and rich, the gray has been hidden for another period of time, the hair feels soft and glorious and I feel amazing. All because I spent a couple of hours with a friend who treated me like a girl.

If you spend a lot of time doing girly things - good for you. I just don't, so every once in awhile it's wonderful to remember that I am a girl.