even if you could, the skin tone would be all wrong for most people. No, this coloring is a natural wonder, unreproducible.”
An older lady in the next chair leaned over and said, “Dear, I’d kill for that shade of hair. Trust Antony. It’s a color we wish we could dye for.” She laughed at her own joke, and I smiled.
I had no doubt Antony and this lady were correct about the inability to reproduce my hair chemically. But then, it was hard for me to imagine hair color manufacturers lining up to create a shade like carrot on fire.
“Hang on. I think I know just the thing.” He went to a stack of magazines in a nearby rack and pulled one out, searching through it. He pointed at a photo showing a stunning dark-haired man in a dramatic raincoat on a city street. “What do you think of this cut?”
The man’s hair was very short at the bottom but graduated longer as it swept up. The top was longish and fully upright with curls and spikey bits.
“My hair won’t do that,” I said.
“Au contraire.” He moved the magazine to one hand so he could comb through the top of my hair with the other. “With the right product, it absolutely could. And with your color? This would look amazing.”
I was highly dubious, but I reminded myself that one did not seek expert advice and then dismiss it. And what did I have to lose? It wasn’t as though my current hair was anything but an orange mop. “If you recommend it, fine.”
He smiled as though I’d awarded him a prize. “Good call! You won’t regret it.”
What followed this pronouncement was so much combing and clipping that it became tedious in the extreme. Antony was far pickier than our barber at home, fixating on tiny millimeters of hair. To escape boredom, I closed my eyes and thought out a population genetic problem involving Inuit that we were currently studying in my Genetics 458 class.
“Okay. You can look now.” Antony startled me out of my thoughts, and I opened my eyes.
I didn’t see well without my glasses, but I was pretty sure I couldn’t believe my eyes. I grabbed my chunky tortoiseshell frames and put them on to be sure. Great heavens, I didn’t recognize myself. I looked like a sophisticated stranger. The top of my hair was sticking up but on purpose now, with a mess of little curls and tufts that was thick and effortlessly jumbled. The sides were buzzed short at my ears and below, which made my face look squarer and less wimpy. There was a sheen to my hair. I carefully touched it. It was dry and stiff with some substance, which was apparently the mechanism by which the top was held into place.
The lady clapped her hands. “You look gorgeous! Antony’s a genius.”
“I’ll throw in a bottle of that hair gel,” Antony announced, looking pleased. “Just put some on after you shampoo and work your hair upward for a few minutes. Easy peasy.”
From the waiting area, Bubba stood and walked over slowly, staring at me in the mirror. “Wow,” he said.
I wasn’t sure if he meant “wow that’s excellent” or “wow what a disaster.” I didn’t feel like myself. But then, feeling like myself had never gotten me very far—not with my social life, in any case.
Antony adjusted a lamp to shine more directly on my hair and spoke to Bubba. “Look at these strawberry-blond highlights and darker rusty bits. So rich! And it’s entirely natural. Wouldn’t you just die for hair like that?”
“It’s nice.” Bubba offered me a tentative smile. His eyes were wide and a little shifty. Probably he was uncomfortable having to give me compliments.
Antony took off the cape and brushed off my shoulders, then regarded me with a tilted head. “Oh my God, that green sweater is perfect. Stick to colors that complement your hair like this—all shades of green, but no pastels, blue of all tones, you might even be able to wear certain shades of yellow, and don’t forget pink and rust.”
That lined up with most of the clothes Quig had pulled. I’d spent my life wearing tan, off-white, or black just trying to be as plain as possible. It had never occurred to me that the color of my clothes could make my awkwardly red hair look less awkward. But when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see the color I hated or my plain face. I saw