Melinda Blau

Writer, Speaker, Social Observer

You are here: Home / Blog / Unexpected Casualty of the Pandemic: My Hair

Unexpected Casualty of the Pandemic: My Hair

by

People talk about the “new normal.”  To me, it’s the New Different.  And we have no idea where the stress and anxiety will take us.   

The virus has already affected my hair.  I don’t yet resemble the meme now circulating, but…

On Tuesday, March 17, I realized my roots were starting to show, so I texted Steven, my hairdresser in Miami, to make an appointment for the following Wednesday (the 25th). 

Two days after those texts, Steven called.  Florida shut down all “non-essential” businesses.  While some recovering princesses might disagree, the Governor included hair salons in that category. 

“Come over now if you want. I’ll wait for you,” Steven offered.

The shop was nearly deserted.  The tension was palpable. Steven, normally unflappable, seemed a little on edge himself.  I figured he wanted to get home.  

“Give me your phone,” he said, knowing that’s where I store the Goldwell formula my New York hairdresser uses. “I know your formula,” he added, handing me a gown, “but I just want to be sure.” 

He disappeared into the back where he mixed the ingredients of “Top Chic NN9 – 20 volume peroxide” in a small plastic bowl.

Five minutes into the process of parting my hair and dabbing globs of gooey hair die on my scalp, Steven’s mood darkened. I felt him tense up.  “Let’s go to the sink.”

Something was very wrong.  Usually, I sit for a half hour or so and then the dye is rinsed out.  He’d only done the upper left quadrant.  If that wasn’t the giveaway, Steven’s hands were.  He shampooed my hair like someone using a scrubboard.
 
“Steven, what’s wrong?”
 
No answer.  More intense and vigorous scrubbing. 
 
“Steven, I know something wrong.  Please answer.”
 
“Someone mixed up the formulas.”  I’ll never know what actually happened, except that somehow NN6 ended up in the NN9 container. 
 
Steven shampooed and then dried my hair.  He shampooed me again.  And again dried my hair. 
 
He dabbed more formula onto other parts of my head, but to tell you the truth, I don’t remember anything after the second (or was it the third?) shampooing. Like the pandemic, this was out of my control.  I took a breath.  
 
He’s on edge; it was a mistake; I can’t give him a hard time.  And he still has to cut my hair. 
 
I reminded myself that in the scheme of things that could go wrong, this was hair color.
 
I was a brunette for most of my life.  A decade ago, heredity caught up with me, and my hair began to turn gray. Kasha, my New York hairdresser, whom I’ve known for over 30 years, gradually started lightening it.  “This way,” she explained, “your roots won’t show as much as the color grows out.”  I trusted her.  And then one day, I was blond.   
 
Now I had brown hair again.  Steven cheerfully promised, “the sun will lighten it.”  
 
Instead of complaining and demanding my money back, as I normally would have done, I gave Steven a bigger-than-usual tip.  He waited for me.  
 
I left hurriedly and made it back to my building in time for a meeting about our condo’s response to the coronavirus. 
 
“Did you do something to your hair?” several of my neighbors asked.  Clearly, I looked different.  
 
One guy even said (affectionately), “You paid your hairdresser for that?”

 

Hair today, what’s tomorrow?  This is only the beginning of the New Different.  How many more things will I — will we —  learn to let go of, do without, or see in a new light?    

 

Share

Find me on Medium.

Comments

    • Melinda Blau says

      A friend who is a hairdresser in Sante Fe assured me that (1) dark roots are already a trend (a fact on of my sorority sisters also confirmed!) and that (2) the sun will do its magic.

  3. Carla Messina says

    Good story. Wonderful reaction on ur part. Inspiring to those who have a hard time accepting.

    • Melinda Blau says

      Thanks The Serenity Prayer helps. This was definitely one of those things I could not change! LOL

    • Melinda Blau says

      And now, I assume, you will have a section in the closet for masks? LOL thanks for subscribing and for continuing to come back

ABOUT ME
As an award-winning journalist and author of fifteen books, my “beat” is relationships. Find out more about my work here.
CONTACT ME
One of the reasons I launched this website is to connect. Please feel free to write to me to share your story or ask me a question.
FIND ME ON SOCIAL