COLOR MY WORLD
by Arlene Schindler

I like to think of myself as a flexible person, ready for adventure, adaptable, like a chameleon in a rain forest. But deep inside, I’m a creature of habits and rituals. I only wear one brand of sneakers. I’m loyal to my doctors, manicurist, and hairdresser. Thirteen years ago I started coloring my hair, with only one brand and shade, Koleston 2000, dark auburn #347. Last year the company discontinued the color. You’d think a tornado hit my home.

I experienced anger, denial, and disbelief…all for a tube of hair color! To me it was more than hair color. It was my personality. With #347 my adolescent auburn became a vibrant reddish brown that made me vivacious. The days following a trip to the hairdresser I was bubbly and animated. I smiled at strangers on the street. I felt pretty and outgoing at parties. My phone rang more. Mirrors liked me. As the month wore on and the color faded, so did my vibrant persona. I knew it was time for a touch-up, not when my roots started growing out, but when I started “feeling brown”.

Did a tube of hair color change my life? My self worth was in that tube. There was the job interview where I prepared a detailed presentation, snappy statements and salary requests. The woman ignored all of it, blurting, “I want to hire you because I love your hair.”

Let’s not forget the party where the most interesting person there walked across a crowded room of beauteous blondes and brunettes to shake my hand, ask me out and start a two year relationship. I was so attached to my hair color that for three years the pin # for my debt card was 347!

I color my hair about six or seven times a year, so the owner of the local beauty supply store knew me like a bartender at the corner bar. One day last year, I walked into the store eager for the rush of turning my dull brown persona back to vibrant red.

“I’ll have the usual,” I smiled.

The owner said, “I’m sorry doll, they don’t make it anymore.”

“What? How is that possible?” I snapped.

“They discontinued a few colors. It wasn’t very popular. No one really used it, just you. Try some maraschino cherry, 521? Very popular.”

You’d think I was told a family member had died. I marched out of the store bereft, feeling brown and with dark roots too. I have never been a maraschino cherry kind of girl. I was left no choice but to become a crazed crusader in search of my magic elixir.

Like a drug addict in search of a new dealer, I could not rest until I had my fix of Koleston 2000, dark auburn #347. I ran home and called every beauty supply store in town. Someone had to have a stash of my shade hiding in a back room. Shelves must be stocked in Minnesota! Fifteen calls later I found a place 12 miles from my house. I jumped in my car and raced as if I were having a medical emergency. They had four tubes, a mother lode of dark auburn that would color my world for eight months. I breathed a sigh of relief, as I copped their entire stock and begged them to score more.

“How many would you like?” the woman asked, calmly.

“Three hundred. I’m going through auburn withdrawal.”

The following day I visited my hairdresser, handing the coveted tube of color.

“Where did you get this? They don’t make it anymore,” he said.

“I climbed the Berlin wall and the iron curtain. How could they discontinue my color?” I kvetched.

“Companies do this all the time. There are other colors and other brands,” he explained.

“But my color is me!” I whined.

He calmed me, and applied the color. He laughed when I told him I had three more tubes. For the next few months I glowed.

Now, time has passed. I just used the fourth tube last month. I called the place that was ordering more for me. They had none. They called their distributor. None as well. They gave me the phone numbers of three other stores in the area. My color was now truly gone. It was time for a touch up. Loss of red dread had set in.

I sent my hairdresser an e-mail titled “Red Panic”

Dear Kurt,

I am writing this rather than calling, so I don't have to hear you laugh long and loud about my hair color anxiety. I've used up my stash of Koleston 2000 dark auburn. The color well is dry. They said to contact a store that only takes orders from people with hairdresser’s licenses. Can you check them for me please? I've been using the Koleston for so long I thought it was my natural color. My roots are due in about two weeks. Please advise.

The following evening he called me at home to restate that there was no more of my color available. His research found a comparable color in a different brand. Kurt explained his color choice process with the detailed precision of a surgeon describing an operation. With the apprehension of a patient anticipating an organ transplant, I visited his salon to get color, new color. Did I have this much anxiety my first day of college?

I arrived for my appointment hopeful, yet skeptical. He showed me the color chart and explained the reasons for the color he chose. The next thing I knew, my hair was bathed in the new color. We both scrutinized the shade, studying my head as if a live animal would pop out of my skull.

As he dried and styled my hair it was clear to both of us that the shade was different. It was too orange. It wasn’t terrible, but not quite me. My obsession took root.

The following week I went on vacation to New Orleans. I checked every beauty supply store there for my color. No luck. I checked the internet and came up empty. I called the Koleston manufacturer.

After four minutes on hold, the woman answered my questions. She said Koleston 2000 dark auburn #347 was now Colorcharm light auburn #445. She then mentioned that Koleston 2000 was never available in America. It was part of their European product line.

So here is my plan. I will check with everyone I know to see if they are traveling to Europe, and if they are, if they could please get me as many tubes of Koleston 2000 dark auburn #347 as they can carry. Then I’ll probably have to get a new set of friends, because the old ones will think I’m crazy. Every aspect of beauty has its price.

Next, I’m moving to Europe to find myself. I’m flexible that way.