A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

I described my salon experience in the post below; was it worth the cancer, dementia, and Parkinson's?




Here's the rest of the images, including the restorative nip of brandy - I could only get one of them to load correctly here.

Click to enlarge







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Yesterday I taped a surgical mask to my face with surgical tape, put a cloth one over that, and got my hair done by Tea Cup Mermaid (also in a mask). I thought having the cut would be worth it but getting it would not be fun due to anxiety, but actually it was fun despite my periodic thought that I would feel really stupid if I got Covid because of a haircut. In fact, it was really wonderful to get to hang out with Tea and Ryan (the other stylist) and Stella, the other client, who was getting her hair colored for the very first time.

Oh so pretty. (Multiple pics, click through.)

As is normal with hair by Tea, it's even better in RL than in photos. The underlayers are dark blue/purple, so it gives the effect of fire at night. The main colors she used are Pulp Riot Nightfall, Nuclear, and Satire - very appropriate for a cut done during a pandemic, with smoke making the day look like it was after sunset.

It will definitely be good for my mental health, though. And if I don't enter a salon for another year, which is looking highly likely, this one will be easier to maintain myself due to the color scheme incorporating darker roots.

I'm now putting my photos on Instagram. I won't always link them here, so please follow me there if you want to see them.

Today I dyed my own hair.

OK, you're cleared to go out:

I've had a hell of a year. I broke my foot and was wrongly told that I'd had a heart attack in the same week - and that was a typical week. So, now that I have learned that my heart is fine, and also that I do not have breast cancer and am not in fact likely to have a stroke (you see what kind of year it was), I decided to get my hair touched up to celebrate.

Since enough had washed out or grown out to switch up the colors a bit, I went with "sunset." Tea Cup, the stylist, literally used a photo of a sunset to choose the shades.

Ta-da!



I told Tea Cup that I'd wanted to have rainbow hair ever since I was eleven, and I'm finally fulfilling my dream. All the stylists were thrilled to hear that. It was a really fun atmosphere in the salon, as everyone was just so delighted to be there and be getting truly amazing hair.

Tea Cup said, "It's funny to say this, since obviously these aren't natural colors, but you really seem meant to have this kind of hair. Sometimes people come in and get looks that they thought they wanted, but then they have second thoughts and then the hair doesn't look right on them. But when someone's really happy and confident with what they want, then it always looks good on them. And that's what you got. It's a very bold look, but you're wearing it - it's not wearing you."

More below cut. ( Read more... )

With brand new beautiful hair! Something Alex appreciated very much:









Last night her flight was delayed, so we went to Daikokuya, an all-night ramen place. It was freezing cold (Layla found it no more than brisk) but the rest of LA agreed with me, because the place was packed. During our 45 minute wait for a table, we ate half each of a Beard Papa chocolate cream eclair and a Beard Papa strawberry cheesecake tart, then bought Melty Kiss and yatsuhashi at the Japanese market, before finally diving face-first into giant bowls of comforting hot ramen with perfectly soft-boiled eggs.

This morning my friends Halle and Ian and their son, and Layla's friend Jen and I went to NBC Seafood, where there was no line! That was a first. We feasted on sticky rice in lotus leaves, fried taro dumplings, char sir bao, slippery rice wrapped noodles, taro pudding, black sesame pudding, egg yolk buns, egg custard tarts, fried lotus paste balls, steamed sausage rolls, shrimp wrapped in nori and fried, steamed Chinese broccoli, chicken fried rice, shrimp in bell pepper cups, ube buns, and hot black sesame mochi which were so good I wish I'd had twelve of them.

On the way back we stopped at a grocery and were waylaid by small, adorable Girl Scouts. I guess we need some snacks for the plane later on...

The grocery clerk asked if we're sisters. I don't know, what do you think?

Yesterday I went to TCM Chinese (Graumann's Chinese) to see Free Solo, the spectacular documentary about climber Alex Honnold's free solo of El Capitan in Yosemite, and was delighted to discover after the movie that he was there to talk about it! I will review the movie later, but wanted to post this photo separately so my hair doesn't distract from discussion about the film. ;)



Afterward, while trying to find the parking garage, I came across a gallery housing this is MANGA – the Art of NAOKI URASAWA. It's free and very impressive - check it out if you're in LA and it's of interest.