I went to have my hair “blonded” last night after work and all went well until I had my hair shampooed. Now, I often times go to Farlow’s Salon and have Brent Jones (who trained with George Michael) trim my ends, so know how shampooing long hair is supposed to be done, and I know how I do it - very gently. At the salon where I have my hair colored, I had one bad experience where one of the shampoo ladies rubbed the length of my hair together like she was trying to use friction to remove tar or some such substance. I told my stylist to please let her know she can’t DO that. It never happened again, thank goodness. But, I got a new shampoo lady last night and she actually piled my hair on top of my head before I could blink and shampooed away. I was worried about massive tangling! She put on quite a bit of conditioner, fortunately, and when I went to comb it out, I asked my guy for some spray-on leave-in detangling conditioner and doused my hair with that. I was so relieved when the comb glided right through that huge rat’s nest. I started from the bottom and it went smoothly – except I had more shedding than usual. I didn’t tell the shampoo lady (who was a very young “beginner”), but will tell my stylist to tell her. I know I should have, but she was so young and trying to do a good job that I didn't want to crush her spirit. Silly me, but all turned out okay.
And, I did need a good shampooing since I’d not washed my ends in awhile. My hair feels very light and soft today – and getting rid of grey always looks better on me. I know some women let their grey grow out, but on me, it looks very unattractive. There are those who are young who say they will go natural and never color their grey - having very good intentions, but they really don’t know how they’ll feel about it until they get older. Because as their hair turns grey, other areas of their body will change also. All of the sudden they’ll look into the mirror and see their mother. Though we may love our mothers dearly, most of us don’t want to LOOK like her (though I am sure there are exceptions).
Aging is a funny thing. While fiddling with our appearance seems superficial and unimportant in the “big picture”, our perception of ourselves (on many levels) affects our daily lives greatly. If we look tired, we start to feel tired. If we look haggard, we start to feel haggard. I don't know why it works this way, but it does!
The Angel of October
The angel of October rejoices as we reap the harvest of what we have sown in life.
October is a good time to step back from our projects and our dreams and take a hard look at what we have actually accomplished. The October angel helps us to be honest and objective about what is good and what is not. With this help, we can clearly face the consequences of our choices over the past seasons. We will taste our harvest and reject what is bitter or unripe, we will make note of what worked and what did not, and we will change for the better.
October's angel teaches us that the greatest fruit of our personal harvest is understanding ourselves.
(from Elain's Autumn Page)
