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The Gays, the Beads, the Bands, and the Hair, Girl, the Hair

My hair is now blue. Bluish in tint. Blue and black. Black and blue I suppose, but there was not a fight involved.

As this transformation was happening my hair guru, yes, hair guru because hair dresser does not suit her, was telling me about her sister. Her sister is shy and introverted, but the one time I met her, I wouldn't have believed it. She had rainbow colored hair at the ends and some bleached blonde spikes that made for a punky little coiffe.

"No way!"

 "Yes dude, and she does this weird thing when she talks to people, rubbing her hands on her thighs, I told her to stop doing that shit, because she looks like something is wrong with her!"

 I laughed as she imitated what I imagined to be damp palms rubbing against jean clad legs. The hair dryer bulbed around my head and foil tins kept flopping over my right eye. 

 As with any trip to see Lisa Hairy (a name I gave her) our mouths run a mile a minute.

"I think it's important to have a choice, you know? I mean I'm Catholic, but I want my son to have an option.Things shouldn't be like this and this, " she gestured her hands making a T palm to palm. 

 "That's cool. I went to church every Sunday, raised very Catholic and now? I don't believe in church. God yes, church no. It's more of a trend, following the Jones."

 "Exactly! It should be about your personal relationship with God!"

 She sprayed warm water against my scalp rinsing the bleach from my black hair. I squinted even though she's never sprayed me in the face. I could see her tattoo covered arms moving as she ran her fingers through my short hair.

"It's hard to deal with people like that, you know? We pretend to be so open minded, but we're not. My sister's gay a lot of my friends are gay, but I don't see them as gay, they're my friends, and some people can go on and on about how it's wrong."

 "I know what you mean. My best friends in Dallas are gay, and they're like my family. Jeffery is my heart and I can't imagine how people can be so, so, I don't know. I went on a date with this guy one time it was going well, then he busted out with "gays are an abomination". I was like, what?"

 "No!"

 "Yes, dude, yes!"

 I sat in the chair as she snipped at the hair on the back of my head. Little bits of dark hair sliding down the orange cape around me, Halloween. She moved like a choreographed dancer, snip snip snip. Her dark a la Amy Winehouse hair moving slightly with her gestures.

"Are you going anything for Mardi Gras? Gonna show you boobies?" her voice going up in pitch as she raised her eyebrows. 

 "No dude, I'm too old for that shit!"

 "Well at least in El Paso right? You'll run into that person the next day and they're all, 'Hey I saw your boobs yesterday', right?"

 We laughed, mouths wide. I think I ate some hair. 

 "Unless I'm in New Orleans there is no boob action."

 "For sure New Orleans you have too!"

 She reached for a pink ball holding Toni & Guy product. Palm to palm she rubbed it together and spread it through my freshly cut hair.

"Are you going to Neon?" she asked

 "For sure, did you see Moby is coming?" 

 "I didn't know you liked electronic music."

 "Yeah, I saw him in Dallas. I had so much fun. I'm excited about Mexican Institute of Sound too."

 "Do you think At The Drive In is going to play?"

 "I'm not a huge fan, I wasn't here when they were all BIG," I made quotes with my fingers, "I mean they're cool, but I think I missed all the hype, same with Sparta. I don't give a shit about Sparta."

 Her eyes got wide, "I hear about At The Drive In all the time, Edgar loves them."

 "Yeah..." I trail off. 

 "What about Eddie Vedder? Are you going to see him?"

 "I think, I might."

 "There you go mam, you're done. You can't see the blue right now, but when you're outside it'll look super cool."

 She swept little chunks of my black hair off the floor as I grabbed my wallet. We say good-bye and I look at my hair in my rear view mirror. It looks so dark. My hair is this dark? Yes, yes, it is because the back matches perfectly. She didn't touch the back with the dye. My hair is back to black...
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