I'm not sure how widely known it is, but I love hair. Not so much mine these days, because I don't have much, but more specifically, hair on women. It's not a sexual thing, but rather an interest in the methods of cutting, styling and coloring to create a desired outcome. It has always been interesting to me, and to this day, I'm fascinated by just how much there is to know. I give good stylists a lot of credit.
Coloring has always been one of the more interesting parts. I used to color my own hair back in the day, because I thought my natural brown was kind of uninteresting. My first wife, Stephanie, used to go super dark, and for awhile she had an interesting ritual of bleaching the shit out of it so she could color it various shades of red. And of course, every once in awhile I would encounter some random woman with really wild colors.
At some point, highlighting became a common thing, and it ranged from chunky to subtle. Then someone figured out low lights, combined them with highlights, and started creating a whole range of interesting textures. Then it became common for different layers or portions of hair to be different colors. Again, I admire the stylist who knows how to use the "technology" to do anything.
Cutting and styling hair is also fascinating. All of the teasing and forced big hair of the 80's was pretty ridiculous. That gave way to a lot more natural styles, fortunately. It was interesting that wavy and curly hair gave way to straight hair, and it seems there is still a surprisingly strong desire by a majority of women to go very straight.
Earlier this year, Diana decided to embrace her curly. She's had some pretty cool styles in the chin length and longer category, and a fair amount of straightening from time to time. Now she's going long, and she has learned so many techniques for really bringing out the curl. Some of it is product, and some of it just how you let it dry. There are entire web sites devoted to the science behind curly hair.
Tonight I helped her apply a bit of henna to bring out the red. That's weird stuff, because it is after all organic matter. It feels and smells like dirt, and nothing like the chemical coloring stuff. She has a lot of hair now, so I applied it in layers and did my best to make sure it covered everything. It's really hard because of the odd consistency, but it's fun to "paint." If I ever wanted to quit the software thing and learn a new trade, I think this would be it.
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