Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

I told my hairdresser recently about how I used to get these amazing highlights in my hair in the summertime, and I thought it was because I used to spend so much time outside.

She said that it's not just the sun that does it but the salt from your sweat. So, she advised, I needed to be active outside if I wanted natural highlights.

As I was driving home that night, I was thinking, "Well, if it's salt that does it, why don't I just pour some salt water on my hair before I go outside?" And thus began the Great Salt Experiment.

Before I took Una, my dog, for a walk, I dissolved some salt in a glass and poured the salt water over my head. But I soon found out why it wasn't the best idea in the world. As soon as it dried, my hair was stiff and sticky, much the same way it feels after a swim in the ocean. And I always assumed that was from the pollution.

I didn't figure a summer's worth of this would do anything wonderful for my hair, so I abandoned that idea. But then I came up with Plan B.

If it's the combination of sweat and sun that lightens the hair, I figure I have a brilliant plan. My daily routine has involved exercising, taking a shower and then taking Una for a long walk. I'll simply reverse the order, walking Una immediately after exercising. This, of course, means I'll also have more of an incentive to work up a sweat.

Now that I know what caused the great highlights I used to have, it makes more sense to me that I used to get them. The summer between high school and my freshman year of college, I was in a drum and bugle corps, which would practice outside daily and march in shows and parades, working up a sweat.

The summer following my freshman year of college, I was a counselor at a summer camp, where we were outside pretty much morning to life, running around, playing games, working up a sweat and also swam in a chlorine pool practically every day.

And the other summers I spent in college and grad school, not only did I walk everywhere at Penn State, but I spent a good deal of time outside, hiking at parks and things like that.

It was only when I entered the workforce that thing changed dramatically and I spent the better part of most summer days inside, in air conditioning.

It will be great to see if the Great Salt Experiment has any sort of an effect. I figure it's worth a shot. And it's cheaper than a salon.

Copyright 2003 by Alyce Wilson

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