I look like an ah lian, now

You can call me an ah lian, for now.

Don’t worry, I have not been led astray or anything to that extent. It is just that I look like an ah lian now. Or at least my hair colour does.

I went for hair styling yesterday, and got myself a new highlight.

I got a shock when I stared into the mirror after the highlight was done.

There were two gold streaks across my fringe. The highlight on the rest of my hair was pretty normal, all except for that two long streaks. It was not light brown or pale yellow. It was solid, golden GOLD.

“AH!” I gave a yelp when I saw that look. “Why did it turn out like that?”

The hairdresser was surprised at my reaction.

“It is nice, isn’t it? It is too boring to have the same kind of natural highlight just like everyone on the street. It is good to have a change and to be different sometimes.”

I used to think that way too. When I was in year one in university, there was once when I dyed my hair twice in a day because I felt that the hair colour was not gold enough.

My opinion then was, if you want to dye or highlight your hair, it means you want to stand out and be unusual. It was an obvious option to pick the most stunning and outstanding hair colour. What’s the point of choosing dark brown colour or anything similar to that when it would probably not show up much on your hair? What is the point of dyeing your hair when nobody knows or detects the change?

A few years down the road, my thoughts are now pretty different.

I do not want to be too outstanding, but would rather do things that are “safe”, with guaranteed success. In a nutshell, now I prize “security” and “ordinary” over “exceptional”.

Right now, I would choose to highlight my hair even in dark shades, as long as it suits my look.

This change in mindset probably came with maturity and age. It seems that as one grows older, one prefers to do things on the “safe side” (or is it just me?).

In a twist of unexpected events, I ended up with the two golden streaks that even made me dread going to work today. But nevertheless, I made my way warily to the office, holding my head low as I walked in. Thank goodness the day went smoothly!

With an informal poll of 10 people today, 2 said my hair looks good (including my boss who gave the comment voluntarily, that was a big consolation!), 5 looked apologetic and said I just had to get used to the colour, 1 asked me kindly if I am thinking of dyeing my hair black again, 1 demanded to know what blow I had suffered that made me undergo the sudden (she actually meant disastrous) transformation, while the last 1 could not see what was the big fuss over the hair colour.

Quoting my boss, “It is good to have a change. Makes one look more refreshed too.”

Yes, it is a good idea to make changes to one’s life once in a while, but I think I would prefer to look like a plain Jane than a so called chao ah lian.

Well, for now, I will not dye my hair black. I will learn to live with the colour and get used to it for a while.

(On hindsight, I think my friend was quite right, what was the big fuss about? It rather amused me that such a small thing like hair colour could keep my mind occupied for a day. Ha!)