The Color of This Blog -- Times, Like, a Hundred

My mom (who, for the record, was not as grossed out by the salt and blood thing as I made her out to be) is excited about me finally putting pictures up here. Since I have none, she's volunteered to send one of her favorites. It's not in my possession in digital format yet, but I wanted to warn you all in advance: The hair color you'll see in this picture is bright, bright red. Not ginger. Red. Or, as noted on the container, Vampire Red (said in a deep, horror-movie voice).

I'll explain. First, we were in North Dakota. Second, I have a cousin. Third, I'm on a budget.

Mom is from North Dakota, and my grandmother and uncle live out there. 9 years ago, I was out visiting Granna and my cousin Christy, then 16, dyed my hair purple for me. It smelled like grapes. As it washed out, if left purple all over the shower curtains, towels, shirt collars... Since then, I've often thought, You know, I don't think dark purple was really my color. I'd look much better in a deep, forest green.

So this year, when we all headed to ND for Christmas, I told Christy I wished we'd done green. "We can take care of that," she said. So we went a-huntin' for dark green hair dye in every punk store in Grand Forks. There are more of those than you'd think. At the record shop, Christy bought some incense and she said, "Hey Holly, they don't have hair dye, but they have piercing needles!" This is a girl who's pierced her own father's ear. That should say something about both of them.

We eventually found green hair dye, but it was fifteen bucks. Honestly, who spends that much on their hair? Surely no one. So we went to another store where the only green was really light and yellow. Not foresty. But they did have a deep red for eight dollars, and it was just a few days before Christmas, so that seemed both cheap and festive. Killer combo!

Thus I went red.

You'll see.