by Linda Burleson

Created on: June 26, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

As a youngster, I was a tow-head. My hair remained very blonde until the eighth grade when it gradually began to change. This was dismaying to me, so I began to use lemon juice as a rinse on my hair after each washing. This worked for a bit, but by the time I was headed to high school it was getting too dark for lemon juice to be successful.

There was a product on the market by Clairol called Lite and Brite. It may not have been spelled quite that way, as that was more than a few years ago, and memory may fail me. At any rate, it was supposed to lighten without the harshness of "real bleach" if you spent time in the sun. That was not a problem as I lived near Padre Island and spent as much time as possible in the sun. This too worked for awhile, but became ineffective. It was finally necessary to use the real deal.

At that time I had a standing appointment at the beauty shop for a "do", which was common in those days; but it didn't occur to me to have color applied there. My friends and I always did that for each other after reading the instructions verrrrrry carefully.

The only brand of home applied hair color on the market in those days was Clairol, as I recall, so off I went to the drug store (there was not yet a Wal Mart either) to purchase a box of hair bleach for my next door neighbor to apply. A toner had to be applied on top of the bleach job so a color had to be selected. I chose ash blonde, and we were ready to go. It took forever, but for all intents and purposes it all went very well. Keeping the roots done was a real pain, but you have to do what you have to do. Everyone liked it including my boyfriend, so I kept it that way until after graduation and two years into college. Fortunately during those years, home hair color quality improved, thus saving my hair.

During my second year of college, I met my husband to be. We got engaged on our second date right before Christmas and were planning a June wedding. He was stationed at the Naval Air Station near my college. My sister lived in a town very close to where his parents lived, and we were going there for the holidays; so we determined that would be a good time for me to meet his family, since he could pick me up and deliver me back there.

I foolishly decided that it was just too much trouble to maintain the blonde hair and decided to dye it as close to the natural color as possible, though I wasn't really sure what that was. Once again, I recruited a friend to help. She and I went to the store and purchased what we decided would look and grow out natural - all this less than a week before meeting my future in-laws.

Orange is not my natural color, but that's what I got - bright orange! A hair dresser recommended that I not put any more product on my hair until it had had several deep conditionings. Well, I was out of time. I met my husband's entire family, parents, sister, brother in law, brother, two grandmothers and four sets of aunts and uncles, with bright orange hair. We have been married for forty-three years, and occasionally someone still brings up that frightful day, a day I would just as soon forget.

The only hair color I do now is highlights, and believe me, I have it done professionally.

Learn more about this author, Linda Burleson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.