MICKI BARE Advertisement

Just as a homeowner can spend tens of thousands of dollars remodeling and redecorating a house, a woman can spend an exorbitant amount of money making over her "look." From hairstylists to manicurists, professionals can be costly.

But when half a tree plummeted into the middle of our driveway after a recent afternoon thunderstorm, Hubby decided to call in a professional, citing that we do not own the appropriate tools for safe half-a-tree removal. I agreed. Which meant the money I normally spend every six weeks on my hair would be going to the tree guy.

Since Hubby was not going the DIY (do-it-yourself) route, I was going to have to sacrifice. I grabbed some coupons and headed to the hair dye aisle of a local mega-discount store for some DIY beauty products.

While perusing shades of full-gray coverage that were close to what I remember as my natural color, I glanced up and noticed a selection of highlighting kits. Less than a month ago, I found out that my sister-in-law does her own highlights. I remember how shocked I was, because her hair always looks so "professionally" maintained.

I remembered asking her if the kits she uses come with highlighting caps. "Sure they do," she'd said in a rather confident and knowledgeable manner. I pulled a kit off the shelf and read the contents. Sure enough, the cap was included. If my sister-in-law could DIY her gorgeous highlights, certainly I could tackle the job.

After selecting my hair products, I decided to look for tweezers. Normally, I will do the eyebrow-waxing thing when I'm in for the hair wash, cut and color. But, since I was forgoing the salon, I decided to do some between-appointment pluck maintenance. My old tweezers were slightly crooked, so I decided to splurge on a new pair. I didn't want to run to the salon for waxing due to lack of appropriate tools to safely remove half a tree -- I mean, a few eyebrow hairs.

I had to pass the nail care products to get to the tweezers. I have never been one to fuss over my nails. As a child, I was a nail-biting tomboy. As a writer, I have found that nails only get in the way of typing. It's not easy to navigate a keyboard with the clickity-clack of long nails inadvertently hitting the wrong keys every other keystroke.

When I noticed the French manicure kit that included an easy, white nail-paint applicator, I thought to myself, if I don't like it, I can always douse my fingers in nail polish remover and clip away.

I spent about $15 at the store on my DIY beauty products. I was elated. If this worked out, maybe I'd do my own hair, brows and nails regularly.

When my Saturday DIY beauty day arrived, I sprang out of bed, grabbed some coffee and began reading the hair coloring instructions. Then I read the highlighting instructions. By the time the coffee pot was empty, I had also read the simple and easy French manicure instructions.

Coloring my hair wasn't too difficult, other than making sure I didn't dye my face, neck, bathroom sink or floor. While waiting for the color to set, I decided to start on the brows. Pluck -- ouch! Pluck -- ouch! Wow, waxing might seem rough, but at least it minimized the "ouches." By noon, my gray was gone and I had one neatly maintained brow.

After lunch, I tightly secured the highlighting cap and began poking and pulling with the enclosed crotchet hook. It took awhile to get the hang of it to the point where strands of hair were actually coming through the cap. And then, when I got to the back, I had to solicit the help of Hubby, who happened to have a little free time while the tree guy was working on removal of the damaged limbs blocking the driveway.

I applied the highlighting mixture and then the outer cap. Another eyebrow was tackled while I waited for my highlights to develop. Pluck -- ouch! Pluck -- ouch!

When I removed the cap, the "highlighted" strands were bright yellow. I was horrified. When I rinsed my hair, the strands looked bright orange. I was nauseous. Holding back tears, I applied the bright purple conditioning solution.

While my hair air-dried, I began working diligently on my nails. Maybe a fresh French manicure would distract people from the clown hair.

At the end of the day, when my gray-free, highlighted hair and pale pink, white-tipped nails dried, things didn't look so bad. The highlights had toned down to a soft honey color and my eyebrows no longer ached. The nails looked good, too -- from a distance.

I was able to accomplish in 15 hours, for $15, what the salon could have completed in three hours. On Monday morning, I called and made my salon appointment for Sept. 1.

Micki Bare is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau and the Courier-Tribune in Asheboro, N.C., and author of the book, "Relative Expressions." She lives in Asheboro with her husband and three children. Her e-mail address is mickibare@inspiredscribe.com.