An Entry About Hair. With Pics!

I think I’ve developed a new food allergy, and I can’t figure out exactly what it is. I’ve always had a slight sensitivity to melon and bananas because of some funky thing where the enzymes in those fruits are similar to the enzymes in ragweed, to which I have terrible seasonal allergies. If I eat them, my mouth itches and my throat swells, but it’s mild and not at all dangerous. In the past two weeks though, I’ve had several very strong reactions about thirty minutes after eating dinner. It’s only happened after I’ve cooked for myself — not every time I’ve cooked for myself, but never from takeout or prepared foods, and I can’t seem to pin down any individual ingredient. It starts with an itchy feeling in my ears and on the sides of my neck and then spreads to my upper back — no hives and no rash, just itching. Then it feels like my lungs fill with fluid, and I start coughing up very thin mucous. Yeah, it’s an awful lot of fun. At the worst of it I’m coughing so hard that I have to struggle for breath, which is terrifying. I’ve found that it helps if I take a Benadryl as soon as I feel the itchiness in my ears, but then I fall asleep within the hour. I try to avoid doctors at all costs, but if this keeps happening then I really need to figure out what’s causing it.As I was drying my hair earlier today, I noticed that the color is almost completely grown out! I only have a couple inches left at the bottom, so the next time I cut my hair, providing that I cut it to my shoulders or so, I’ll have 100% natural-color hair for the first time since I was 15! This is extremely exciting for me. Why? I don’t know, it’s just something I’ve been looking forward to. Now that it’s grown out I’ll probably go right around and start coloring it again.

And now, a retrospective of my hair over the past eight years. If you don’t feel like looking at lots and lots of pictures of me . . . go away. 😀

Age 15, the last picture that was taken before I learned about the Wild World of Hair Color.

Yes, my hair used to be very, very long. Not too much has been done here — just some blonde highlights of the Sun-in variety and a box or two of semi-permanent color. I was taking it slow to see how blonde I could get. I think I was 17.

Two years later by age 19, it had gotten so blonde that it turned orange. Yikes!

Still scary long, still scary orange. It was seeing this photo that made me decide to cut it all off and go red.

Clearly, some trial-and-error time was needed. This is the first red color I tried and it was so burgundy that I had color washing down the drain for two weeks. That’s my mom next to me, isn’t she cute? (Actually it’s not the best photo of her.) We look a little alike now, but if you put a photo of me at age 13 next to a photo of her at age 13, you wouldn’t believe that it’s not just one person with a time machine.

Finally, I found a good color! I’d just gotten a webcam so I took quite a few photos of my new light-auburn color.

I’m not wearing any clothes in this photo. Too bad you can’t see anything but my shoulder. Ha ha! Isn’t the hair-color pretty?

I was getting tired of the red and decided to let it grow out. After about three months of fading and growth, I saw this photo and it horrified me so much that I went right out and dyed it again the next day.

The original file name was “Drunk and Skanky Rickie.” I was so scary-drunk when this photo was taken that it’s not even funny – I don’t even know where I was. That doesn’t look like the bathroom of any of the places I used to frequent.

Surly in stage makeup with half-grown out hair. The pinned part above the ears was brown and the curled part below the ears was red — it’s not really clear in the photo but it was very funny in person. (I’m not wearing any clothes here, either. In Victorian times, this would make me a harlot. A harlot!) I was really only taking this photo to make a reference for my makeup — the show was running for a month and I needed to be consistent. I’m also linking this one to the full sized image because I can’t believe how green my eyes have gotten. They used to be blue until I was 20, then they turned grey and are now green. Weird, huh?

And, that’s it. Eight years of Rickie’s hair in one entry. I’ll have to update it with a photo of my brand new all-one-natural-color, once I have it.