I always wanted to be red

I've always had brown hair.
Brown hair and brown eyes.
When you are a kid who is a dreamer, there is nothing more deadend than brown hair and brown eyes.
My mother and aunt have beautiful green eyes. My high school boyfriend's eyes were hazel. My husbands eyes are a beautiful, icy blue. My stepdaughter's almond-shaped eyes are almost grey.
Mine are brown.
You can buy contacts and change the color of your eye, but I've never been inclined to do that. The few times people I knew chose that option, they ended up looking a little off-kilter. Kinda nutty.
So that leaves the brown hair. Granted, my brown hair has lots of other colors in it too, most recently a shocking amount of wiry, silver hairs that poke through the brown thicket like shining swords of seniority.
Before summer came, I decided to highlight my hair. My friend's stepdaughter has a shop in Strasburg, so I decided to give it a try.
For Shenandoah County, it has a decidedly metropolitan feel. The young stylists all have multi-colored hairdos, shocking swatches of dark beside bright blonde. That certainly is not the proper style for a increasingly middle-aged, middle class, professional woman.
I chose caramel highlights which looked very nice through the summer.
However, even with the snazzy highlights, my hair was still predominantly brown.
I finally made an appointment to have my highlights redone. On the day of my appointment, I said to a few of my friends at work that I might just go red.
Not just red. Auburn.
Red makes me thinks of Howdy Doody and Archie. Auburn conjures images of Julia Roberts' mane of hair in Steel Magnolias.
There's nothing plain about auburn.
When I told Ginger, my stylist, what I wanted to do, she clasped her hands together in delight and gave a little jump. "I've been waiting for you to go red!" she exclaimed.
It is a long process. First the foil wraps. Then you wait. Then the hair dryer. Then the shampoo. Then another treatment called "shines" which is deep conditioning.
I have to take my glasses off to have this work done, so I can't see anything that is being done. I squinted and tried my best to see into the mirror behind Ginger and I thought I could see a kind of pink aura around my head.
That was troubling.
Instantly I began to regret my decision. What if I look ridiculous?
Too late to worry and I decided not to look into the mirror again until everything was over. I relaxed into the chair and half listened to the chattering in the shop and the music on the radio.
Finally, she stepped away and indicated that she was through.
I put my glasses on and looked at my reflection.
Oh.
Not only do I have auburn hair, but I have red highlights that almost look the color of my cherry kitchen cabinets. Not what I was expecting, but definitely a more modern look. I always like how she styles my hair and she did a particularly terrific job - spurred by the idea of doing something radically different for me.
Young women today think nothing of changing their hair color. I wasn't raised like that. The only girls who colored their hair at my high school were the ones who usually hung out in the smoking area (was that a long time ago...) with the bad boys.
The reviews at work today were positive. And I think I like it.
The Ump looked at me last night and said, "That's different." Which coming from him speaks volumes. You know that saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words"? Well, for the Ump, two words are worth a thousand other words. Normally, he doesn't even notice when I've had my hair cut.
So now I have auburn hair and brown eyes.
I'm thinking about new glasses...