hair apparent

Manic Panic, my favorite hair dye ever, got a mention in the Times recently.

In 9th grade I started dyeing my hair with food coloring. This worked just fine until I got caught in the rain, or a water balloon fight, or went for an impromptu midnight swim in the lake.

So then I started using henna. It reeked of alfalfa, or so I imagined alfalfa to reek, but it came in all sorts of lovely shades of copper and orange and red. And wouldn't cause cancer, or so my father argued.

Then 12th grade rolled around, and I was done with lovely shades of copper and orange and red. I was looking for black, and that required chemicals.

I finally got to Barnard in 1994 and discovered the joys of Manic Panic and the monthly trip to Trash and Vaudeville to procure it.

Fuschia and green streaks were my style of choice. I remember getting off the plane at SeaTac airport that December, meeting Mom's boyfriend Bill, and failing utterly to come up with a polite yet scathing response to, "Huh. Nice to meet you. When did you say you'll be going back to NY?" Luckily he wasn't around very long.

To this day I have a soft spot for Manic Panic.