Hot Pink Hair Color and Set

Tuesday, May 5, 1998

The week's saga began when a cousin notified me by E-mail that she would be attending a conference in San Francisco. I hadn't seen her in about 12 years, and she lives in the southeast, so I was eager to meet her and act as tour guide for her and, it turned out, two of her friends who were also in attendance. I visited my usual salon a few hours of the time that I was to meet her, but she was too busy with two permanents in progress to even give me a shampoo and set in time. I settled for a shampoo and set at a nearby salon, which the stylist did entirely on 5/8 inch rollers. I was the only client in the salon until a man came in for a haircut while I was under the dryer.

The combout consisted of brushing through the set, after which I was left with little in the way of curls.

Thursday, May 7, 1998

Thursday was the day that I had originally planned to have my hair colored again. I arrived at my usual salon at about 3:00 p.m., again without an appointment, and had to wait about 45 minutes while one lady was being rolled for a permanent, one man had a haircut, and the first lady whose perm had been processing had the rods removed and set on Velcro rollers, ranging from pink 1 inch rollers on top to gradually smaller green, blue, and yellow rollers down the sides and back.

It was then my turn. My hair was shampooed, a conditioner was applied, and I was placed under the other dryer next to the lady with the set, after I had retrieved and plugged in my laptop computer, of course! . A woman with a mid-length curly bob had arrived for a haircut while I was waiting, and had it done at that time. Next, the second lady getting a perm had the rods rinsed and her hair shampooed at the shampoo bowl.

At about 4:30 the stylist asked me to chose a color from the chart of colored hair strands, and I chose a medium ash brown. She then mixed the color, and applied it to my hair using a hair color bottle. When that was done, I returned to sit at the dryer to continue this diary entry. The lady previously under the dryer had her rollers removed and her grey hair styled into a short, wavy style.

Finally, the second lady getting the perm had her short, tightly curled hair cut even shorter. Then, a man who had walked in and was waiting during all of this had his hair cut and styled using a blow dryer.

3:15 p.m. My turn to have the hair color shampooed out at the shampoo bowl. After this was done, the stylist applied a cream conditioner, sprayed on some others as well, and had me rest lying at the bowl for about 15 minutes. She then styled another lady who had come in by dampening her hair, drying it with a blow dryer and a round brush, and finishing the style with a medium curling iron.

I then moved to the styling chair. I could see that my hair was now light brown, with some of the blonde showing through. I showed the stylist a picture of my favorite style, which I had found in a magazine years earlier, and she set my hair with larger buff and yellow rollers on top, smaller orange rollers down the sides and back, and a few smaller blue rollers. She then seated me under the dryer, and I had her take a picture of me shown above, complete with the laptop computer that I am typing on.

6:15 p.m. My hair was dry. The stylist obliged by taking the usual 4 pictures of me and the set from different angles.

Then she combed out the style, first using a rake to break up the set, then finishing it with a tool with both a teasing comb and a metal pick. The style was complete at about 6:45 p.m., and the now obligatory pictures were taken. I left the salon, no longer a blond, at about 6:55 p.m.