Headache?

I think turning 44 years old shortly after giving birth to my sixth child had the unexpected effect of me watching in the mirror for curly white corkscrews. Not right away of course, because between a c-section and subsequent painkillers and then just the routine sleepless nights of a newborn on the every two hour meal plan, not to mention the needs of the other 7 people in this house proved rather distracting for a year.

About Daniels birthday celebration I finally gave in and sought some copper highlights to blend the curly white twists into the rest of my dark auburn hair. It was the perfect antidote to dreading the upcoming winter also. Those highlights were so subtle my husband gave me the deer in the headlights look when I asked him if he liked my new hair color. He desperately searched for where this haircolor was, as if I carried it in a grocery sack in my arms. I take that as a compliment.

It's the end of the dark and dreary but not too cold winter we had this year, and the corkscrews are popping up again. This time I took my 11 year old daughter in to get her eyebrows arched a little, a rite of passage into young womanhood in my family. While my highlights were wrapped in aluminum foil and baking under a bonnet hair dryer, I watched her face as her eyebrows were waxed. I had mine done while I was there too, but somehow I'm the only one that emerged with bright pink spaces around my eyebrows.

The stylist was skillful and pleasant, but a little short for my torso so she requested that I bend my neck at an odd angle for a couple of minutes to complete a task. Today, two days later, I still have the headache that I woke up with the next day, and I think I've identified that as the onset. Note to self, no thank you is a perfectly reasonable answer, she can use a stool, or lower the chair.

A brief pressure point massage from the same daughter went a long way to easing my achey temples, but isn't quite the cure-all I'd hoped. I'm pleased with my new highlights, although these are a bit more dramatic than I'd asked for. Which of course means my husband said "you look like you just spent some time in the sun! and my daughter loved the highlights and wants some for her hair. Thank you, but no expensive self-indulgences should be started at age eleven. And where did I put that giant bottle of Tylenol?