LIVING
LIVING
NOVEMBER 2011
IN THE PINK
I once read or heard that if
red-heads dye their hair it turns pink and since I have never
taken an interest in such things, I forgot about it!
Until the age of 35, my hair
was deep titian red and as a child, I had to suffer freckles too,
infact in England I felt quite a freak. There, having ginger
hair is considered really un-cool and nowadays, I have heard
that there is even a web-site dedicated to the hatred of red-heads.
Not bothered by being hated
for my haircolour, I have had a hankering for red hair since
summer time. Perhaps in tandem with the economic recession or
perhaps due to haphazard hormone levels, either way, I have
been longing to have golden, red hair again, the bright, golden
ginger of orange marmalade and of my past. The Greeks have
always loved the colour of my hair that has paled to strawberry
blonde and if I am honest, I should write white but I prefer
the comfort of denial, so lets stick with ‘strawberry blonde’
. Wind on to October when I
bought two sachets of wash-in hair colour, one light blonde, the
other a deep golden ‘chestnut red’ for dark blondes.
Last Saturday I split open the
chestnut red shampoo and lathered it into my scalp I waited 5
minutes, streams of red henna dripping down my neck. I then
rinsed it out as instructed and waited for it to dry.
Interesting……now I look like a blood orange; the top of my head
dark pink like its flesh and the rest a deep shade of orange.
‘Kokkino-mallas’ (red heads) are very fahionable in Greece at
the moment, made trendy by a couple of daytime female
journalists who have dyed their dark hair red.
Mr L thinks that I look
beautiful and I wish he really knew but our children are
blatantly honest. Child number two exclaimed’Oh, you’ve got
pink hair, you look like a clown’ Child number 3 groaned ‘ Oh
you’ve put it on wrongly, its all different colours’. As far as
she is concerned though, everything I do is wrong and I am a
liability who needs constant observation.
That night, two lovely Greek
friends whom we dined with said ‘great colour, a little strong
but it suits you’ “Ah Kokkino malla!” exclaimed the restaurant
owner. Two other Greek friends, both very creative and broad
minded who happened to be in the restaurant, stared and said
nothing and when I left the restaurant, I heard lots of laughter
but this could just be down to my paranoic sensitivity
Meanwhile, I have learn
something, that if red-heads (past and present) dye their hair,
it turns pink!
Alison Lorentzos
copyright
2011
