Atomic turquoise chaos at the silly hair club

The Great Hair-Dyeing of August 2006
Originally uploaded by Liz Henry.

Five kids, me, peroxide, and an assortment of “Punky Color”. We went wild. There’s tin foil in little shreds all over. Pink, red, purple, and blue splatters in the bathroom. My hands look diseased. It’s been an amazingly festive morning here at the Nuthouse!

So! Moomin has refreshed his flame-stripe. Squid‘s older daughter has bleached the tips of her shoulder-length hair; the tips are now midnight blue where it shades into brown, and “atomic turquoise” at the very ends. Merlin, who’ white blond already, has a network of thin bright blue stripes. Eliz. has the front of her hair dyed a mixture of ruby, purple, and “Little Red Corvette”, which I hope will dry to be a shocking vareigated pink. Her hair needs a lot of bleaching and I was perhaps too conservative. Sophie did not want anything in her hair!

While her mom was gone, Iz got into the tub with her clothes on and her head full of peroxide & dumped a pitcher of water over her own head. “Ooops, now I’m all soaked.” “You know, Iz, I think we are alike in that we both have excellent ideas, but then have not always through the ramifications of the implementation of those ideas.” For her, not wanting to take off her clothes in a strange house, and not being able to rinse her hair effectively in the sink. For me, not having thought through what it means to have five large loud children running around with bleachy heads; children who are not Moomin who will quietly suffer through a hair-rinsing in the sink while muttering “ow, ow, ow.”

They were all really good though, and I had a fantastic time. I loved every minute of it. If only it were my own mom who had to clean it up afterwards, things would be ultra perfect.

I liked the moment when Squid’s phone rang (with “He’s a Lumberjack” playing). “Oh hi Mom.” (casual-like). “Oh, nothing much, I’m just in Badger’s bathroom dying Iz’s hair BRIGHT BLUE.” Squawks from the phone and an evil smirk on Squid.

Then the Pilot came outside with a tiny barking puppy. Oh, you thought there couldn’t possibly be more chaos?

School starts on Monday!