19 June 2007

Le Sigh.

My hair has often been a sore point for me.

When I was in primary school, my grandmother used to gaze at my luxurious, long, black hair and will say, "Your hair can be used for shampoo advertisements" as she stroked the silky, glossy strands.

Come secondary school, hormones came along and brought its friends, Acne & Insecurity, into my wretched adolescent existence. And hormones ravaged my hair and left it unrecognizable. What was once silky & black is now just... a mess of black wires. Truly, with each painful year, the hair simply exploded. It was unstoppable: black, thick, unruly, wiry, coarse, untameable. I gave up trying to have a flattering hairstyle, for verily, hope deferred makes the heart sick.

In junior college, I found a hairstyle that won't make me look too much like a mop and pretty much stuck with it for the rest of my life, as a JC friend so unkindly and bluntly pointed out to me ("Hey Quirkie! Wah your hairstyle never change from JC days hor!"). Oh sure, I tried a different style every now and then; I even had a dalliance with the rebonding trend; but at the end of the day, it was still the boring short cropped layered slope.

My church... *shuddering sob* A place of respite & acceptance? They coined this nickname for me: Bush. Nope, nothing to do with America, everything to do with botany.

And the colour of my hair. It's an intense black. A did-you-dye-your-hair-black?-black. So if you have tres noir hair that is also over-abundant, you get this very hard and harsh look without even trying (have I mentioned my thick, black eyebrows?). It wasn't until I tried colouring my hair once after my graduation that I realised how a softer hair-colour can make a person look friendlier and less sallow.

A few months ago, I tried colouring my whole head a reddish-orange tinge and it worked pretty well for me. I felt more confident and looked less harsh. But you know how it is... hair colour fades, black roots grow out. So, yesterday I decided it was time for a new colour treatment, seeing how I've got 2 weddings to attend pretty soon. I chose a reddish colour again, seeing how it worked for me the last time.

As the hairdressor washed off the dye, I stared at the mirror and a pale-faced punk with bright red hair stared back at me.

This morning, my colleague did a double take when he saw me. He went over to my other colleague and said...
He: Quirkie did something to her hair.
She: Okay, is it a good or bad thing?
He: It's... attractive.
She: So it's a good thing lah?
He: You can say that... but attractive also means it attracts a lot of attention.

So far, an aunty in the office has been merciless on her relentless attacks on my hair. "Ah lian! Ah lian! When Intuition see you, he'll be like, Wah! Who's this new girl I'm dating? Looks like ah lian!"
And then she said, "Wah, with this colour you must be careful about what you wear... Wait you wear not nice, people say you aunty. You go market later people call you 'aunty'!" -____-b
"Eh, what is this colour you dyed? Burgandy? You must tell me, so that next time I go hairdressor, I'll know what colour not to ask for..."
*whispers to another colleague* "I want to pour my black coffee on her hair so that it will turn black..."

Woe is me, for I am a girl of unkind hair, and I work among a people of unkind lips :(

20 comments:

Singing Tigger said...

lol... sorry ah. your writing is very funny. :o)

but sorry too... of the people who should be loving and caring.

bring down the brimestones and hell fire ...

just read about "purification" and holiness in my book 1... :D

(got pix? :p)

Anonymous said...

ah lians are chiou bus... i like ah lians!

Anonymous said...

no worries! u r jus as pretty as ever! :)

Anonymous said...

Aww, I'm sure it's not that bad! You're suited for interesting, off-the-beat hairstyles, so don't worry. :)

- Jac

Ms Krong said...

dun worry lah, red or black, you can't look worse than Michael Jackson! hahahaha

Quirkz said...

dear all, thanks for ur kind words ;)

singing tigger: i tried taking a pic of it, but the colour looks more muted in pictures.. gotta see it for urself :P

ms krong: well, that is one consolation... i think :P

Singing Tigger said...

ms krong... that's like saying nothing. -_-b

and ms quirkie, probably wont see you any time soon eh... how long will the colors last? in their original form?

=)

Quirkz said...

prob not that long, cos with each wash, the colour fades a little.. the water from my hair was PINK when i washed it last night!!

i will be at Bugis tomorrow evening.. you can catch a sighting of The Red Haired One if you wanna :P LOL!

Anonymous said...

JMoh:

Catch you @ Bugis... hahaha if thats an incentive to join the usual suspects for dinner tomorrow - Count me in then! I wanna get a black n white with colour enhanced photo of you tomorrow! you know what i mean...

Flaming redheads and BBq hair! It might just turn out dazzling pretty on you. I still owe you for satz, so i'll be nice in my comments ;)

Anonymous said...

like what jac said, you're suited for interesting off-beat hairstyles!

Quirkz said...

hi anon 3:28, care to intro? =)
yeah well, offbeat hairstyles.. i guess i'm pretty offbeat as well :P hence i'm Quirkie! wahahaha...!

*ahemz...* sorry.

Singing Tigger said...

ha... it was so nice to put faces to nicknames. and it wasn't as bad as i thought lah.

let's see the pix, ms krong. :D

Ms Krong said...

I've posted them on multiply... Will take a while to be uploaded... website: http://eeyuing.multiply.com

Ms Krong said...

for a more detailed post about the red haired gal, go: www.xanga.com/viadolorosa

Anonymous said...

Hi!

I am a Xanga friend of viadolorosa. I think your hair looks great! I would love to see the true color, though.

BTW, your a great writer. Good reading!

:-)

Anonymous said...

The verdict is out:
She is not the female version of Ghostrider...the flaming redhed was an Exaggeration. Looks good on her, but she should have done that for CNY instead (more angbaos from the grannies la!)

JMoh

Quirkz said...

suuuuure... judge my hair and my words, why don't you all *rolls eyes*

thanks for taking the time tho! ; ) twas good meeting up, even if the motive was rather... strange. hahaha!

Quirkz said...

caroline: Thanks for dropping by and for the generous compliments! Have fun browsing around =)

Anonymous said...

Hi there, after viewing your beautiful shots at http://eeyuing.multiply.com & www.xanga.com/viadolorosa , I thought you didn't look too quirky.. ever thought of dye-ing your eyebrows to the same red too? Then the picture will look less weird.. hahaa

Singing Tigger said...

wow, drawing ms krong's xanga friends huh. :D