Saturday, October 07, 2006

Purple Rain

All over town the stores have been busily changing their displays to highlight the fall and winter styles and I have noticed that purple is the hot color this season. All shades, from iced, muted tones tending toward mauve to vibrant, warm rich violet, the color is raining down upon us from the shop windows.

I mention this not because I am a fashion maven, nor because I am overly fond of purple, but because it is somewhat of a relief that I will blend into the season’s color scheme. Not my wardrobe, mind you, as I possess precious few items in the purple spectrum. No, no…my hair.

The continuing saga of hair adventures, if you are a habitual reader of this blog and have followed the travails of bad haircuts I’ve obtained, has carried over to my life in Italia. Yesterday I purchased a semi-permanent hair color kit to cover the increasing gray sprouts that insist on forcing their way upon my head. Nothing new, as I have had this problem since I was about 18, following my grandmother and mother into the realm of prematurely gray women. I found the brand I normally used at home and perused the shades. I noticed that colorings here, while bearing the same brand and logo, have different tints that I am used to (definitely more vibrant and “fake”, usually tending toward reds), but I consulted the side panel where it shows, “if your hair color is thus, the result will be so”. Nowhere did it foretell the color that my locks currently brandish.

I didn’t even leave it on for the full recommended time (meno male for that, as they say here), and when I rinsed and towel-dried I was greeted by the mirror’s reflection of bad tidings…a purple hue in the magenta range.

For his part, Bryan is amused and thinks it looks good, as many women around here sport unusual hair colorings that are very unnatural shades of red or even black that tends to look blue. He says it is one more step toward becoming a local. With the fall colors in the storefront windows, I guess I’ll have to grin (or grit my teeth) and agree. For my part, I'm hoping it fades as quickly as the fall leaves.
copyright 2006 Valerie Schneider

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I sympathize: I was "carrot top" for my to Cleveland.

Anonymous said...

I've recently suffered an evil direction in hair color too, but it was a professional miscalculation.
OTH, purple looks great with moss green, a very hot color this fall. I can't say as much for its effect with rust which is another hot fall color.
How about pansy-violet contact lenses?

Barbara said...

What we REALLY need is a picture!!!

Anonymous said...

When I send your fall/winter clothes to you should I find everything I can that's purple??!!!
Diane

Anonymous said...

Kelly, I'll post a photo of my bad hair if you post one of yours! I may be dumb enough to dye my hair purple but I'm not crazy enough to put a photo out into the world! :) (Besides it didn't show up well when Bryan tried to take a picture)
Diane - I don't think you'll find anything purple. How about something moss green like Judith recommends?

Corrie said...

purple hair, huh? :) i agree with bryan: it's just one more step towards blending in with the local culture :). also you are right--it will look nice with this fall's wardrobe colors!