Flashback weekend-My Former Life as a Blonde
Another week of me looking back at the articles I wrote for the Syracuse Herald Journal when I was a teen. In this week’s article, I write about my life as a blond and how I suddenly decided to go brown. Obviously for any who know me, you’ll see it didn’t last long, as I’m back to blond again!
My Former Life as a Blonde
“Hey! Who’s that new girl writing for hj using Julie’s name?”
I’m sure that’s a question commonly asked nowadays. Well, it IS Julie-uh, I mean me. But now I’m a brunette.
Now, you’re probably also thinking, “What the hell did she do that for?” Well, let me tell you why.
Just cuz. That’s why.
I don’t want to be a blond! I never was! My mother used to brush blond streaks in my hair when I was young. Then, once when I was a freshman (god forbid), I felt I needed a change. Boy, what THAT a mistake.
“Hey! Let’s put highlights in your hair” (name withheld for personal reasons-meaning she’ll kick my butt). “Okay-dokey,” I reply. And in goes the color.
Mind you, this was only supposed to be a highlight. So, we wash out the color when all of the sudden I hear “oops” come out of her mouth. Well, it seems that it had gotten a little lighter than planned.
So I go to school the next morning and for some reason, people actually liked it!
“Oh, you look better as a blond” And upon hearing the old phrase “Blondes have more fun, ” I let the Miss Clairol fly. Each month, I got a little lighter.
During my high school years as a blond, pretty strange things have happened. I once had a guy scream, “Hey, blondie! What’s your sign?” And of course my reply was, “Stop. Yield. Children at play.”
And I’ve had the oh-so-intelligent brunettes come up to me asking very stupid questions and then reprimanding me for it!
For instance, while I was working at the Fair, some female (I refuse to call her a woman for personal reasons) pointed to a cookie and asked, “What’s that?” Being the good salesperson that I am, I reply, “A cookie.”
Boy, was she mad She looked at me, twirled her hair and said, “Yeah, I’m a blonde.”
I’ve heard such phrases as, “You can get away with it, you’re a blonde”, “Just look at her hair! Of course she wouldn’t know the answer!” and the classic, “I had a fight with a blond chick once, so now I hate all of you.” Gee, thanks.
Looking into a picture of myself, I’ve always felt that I’ve looked washed-out. So, eventually, I talked myself into doing something different-again. Not to mention the fact that I was beginning to feel really stressed out and if I didn’t do something soon, I’d crack.
Then, one glorious Friday afternoon (well, it would’ve been glorious if I hadn’t been in school), I decided. I turned to my friend Deanne and said, “I’ve decided I’m gonna dye my hair, quit my job and rob a bank. Wanna come?” “Sure!” she replied.
So off we went to the hair-dressers. There was There was no way I was going to do a usual home coloring this time.
I walked on in and told my story. And let me tell you were these people happy to hear it-although I”m not sure whether they were happy to have a customer, or just generally happy for me. Ah, well.
After a lot of dye for me and a haircut for Deanna, it was time to wash that vile stuff out and see my new “natural color.” OOH…wow.
There I was, a whole new person. Deanne was skeptical at first, but in a matter of seconds, she was flabbergasted, while I was still working on the “flabber…” thing.
Oh, yeah, I never did get to do that bank thing, but I did quit my job. But that’s beside the point.
Everyone who saw me loved it-except my mom and stepfather. My nephew said he didn’t, but what does he know anyway?
Since then, I still have people ask me, “Did you dye your hair?” No, stupid. It grew in overnight.
There has been a difference in treatment. I seem to find that more people take me seriously, except those few that still say it’s “artifiical intelligence.”
I also find that Im being called smart-like changing my hair color made me intelligent! NO! I DON’T THINK SO! Believe it ot not, I’ve always been smart. DUH!
I’m happy now, as a brown-ette. I don’t look so washed out. And that age-old rumpr about blondes and fun doesn’t hold much water with me. As a matter of fact, I’ve found life to be an improvement.
It’s amazing what a little, or a lot, of dye can do.
A few of my various styles/colors since High school
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I used to be blond, naturally, but now I live in the land of no sun so I have to be a fake blond. I haven’t gotten it done in a while, I think this article inspires me to go back to being blond
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Great article! So what color is your hair now?
Julie Reply:
March 7th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
It was super blonde and now it’s a darker blonde. It suits me.
I’m kind of jealous of everyone, like you, that’s messed around with hair color. I’ve never done that. I have super dark brown hair so I’m afraid I’d just make a mess of things. Besides, I’m too busy just keeping up with the gray coverage at this point.
You looked cute in every shade you had, by the way.
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Oh, you’re sexy (and uber smart) even if you decided to try going bald, honey!
Have you tried dyeing your hair red? I would if I could pull it off (the downside of being Asian is that anything other than black or white hair really doesn’t fly).
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Julie Reply:
March 7th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I’ve been red, I just couldn’t find the pictures for it lol.
I like it both ways. I’ve always had natural blonde highlights but in recent years, I’m too fat to wear a bathing suit so the sun hasn’t brought them out. Maybe I’ll hit the bottle. Not THAT bottle, the hair dye bottle.
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Hi Julie.
You are too funny.
You have no idea how much I pay to be a ‘natural blond’ as an adult.
Your funny. Great story. I remember when I first dyed my hair. How dumb-I used peroxide.(straight from the bottle) I was cool. LOL I had long spiked hair(as tall as I could get it-the better) Wow. I thought I was hot stuff.(About 8th grade) Then I decided to reverse highlight it (skunk it) & put brown dye in to make it look two-toned. Then went to blonde again. This time I used Miss Clariol. I had long blonde hair when I got married. I got sick of dying my roots & when I was pregnant for my 2nd child – my ob/gyn made me feel like it could hurt the baby if I colored my hair. So I went natural & wow did it get dark. Now I color it to hide the greys. (30 something & 2 kids do that to ya.) And I sometimes highlight it to make me look fashionable. I think it hides the greys coming in.
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I had pale blonde hair growing up – my Swedish heritage…I always wished I had jet black hair, you know – you always want what you don’t have! LOL! As us kids got older, our hair turned a darker blonde, more like a dishwater blonde, so I used to have it highlighted. Then I went through a phase with really light blonde hair, but now I’m back to almost natural medium/dark blonde with lighter highlights. I’m one of the lucky ones – I don’t/won’t have to worry about turning gray – when my hair changes when I get old, it will turn white, just like my grandparents…
I often thought about dyeing my hair brunette – because you’re right – some people don’t take blondes seriously. When I was an executive in the Corporate World, there were people who didn’t take me seriously…it really irritated me that I always had to prove my intelligence before they would realize I wasn’t a ‘dumb blonde’.
You look AWESOME in every picture – with every hair style and color…beautiful!
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Ohhhh you r soooooo cute!!! Remember when I use to be a brown haired girl and then dyed my hair red but the it turned pink??? Ohhh yeah…..I remember that too!!! I wonder how long this will last.
Blond hair & brunette brains. Doin’ good, kiddo!
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I’ve had pretty much every shade of ‘natural’ colours and a couple unnatural ones. Because it changed so often, nobody knows what colour it’s SUPPOSED to be, so I’ve never been treated any differently based on my hair color. Based on my behavior? Oh yeah
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I love the picture from the Syracuse HJ. Cracked me up
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Where are the brunette photos! We need to see them in order to let you know if you made a terrible mistake!
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you have messed up your hair but still you look great.
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I’ve been every color under the sun….It’s natural now…waiting to start dying it again when the grey starts showing it’s ugly head. Til then….brown it is.
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Some great pics there and you look good in EVERY hair colour… that shouldn’t be possible, I’m sure!
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