Another Stupid Idea

It was the morning on February 10, 2007 and I was off to Smiths. What for? Well what else would you go to Smiths at 10:30 in the morning on a Saturday for? Exactly! Grape kool-aid. Not to drink, but to dye my hair with.

Now most would say 'Kimberly, how did you come up with such a completely ludicrous idea?'. Well in third grade two girls dyed their hair with kool-aid for the last day of school and it was 'really cool'. So here I was ten years later reintroducing an idea that should have been left to die in the third grade.

Why was I doing this? I wanted purple hair for Mardi Gras and I figured that kool-aid wouldn't be permanent and I would have my naturally brunette hair back in a couple of days.

So I got back to my dorm, briefly researched the process on the internet and went to it. To create the dye you mix packets of unsweetened kool-aid with hair conditioner. Then dampen your hair and apply. Ten minutes later my otherwise white bathroom was splotched with purple and smelt like grape. My scalp was burning so I figured it was working.

I let it sit, waiting for my normally brunette hair to turn purple, an hour and fifteen minutes later it was time to rinse. I went to the tub and let the water run with purple, it was about this time that I figured it wasn't going to work. I started counting my losses; the $1.20 I had spent on kool-aid and the fact that I would smell like a grape for Mardi Gras. It looked to me like that would be the end of my purple hair experience. Ha!

By this time I was allready running late for the Mardi Gras volunteer meeting and I didn't have time to let my hair naturally dry. So I asked Whitney (my darling roommate) if I could borrow her blow dryer. I started drying my hair when I noticed a light mist coming off of my hair. I didn't pay any attention to it. I also noticed that everything around me started smelling like grape...

Suddenly the fire alarm went off and we started to evacuate the building. I calmly turned off the blow dryer, grabbed my iPod and went outside.

Outside of Morgan Hall my friends and I congregated into a circle and were chatting it up when my R.A. Jeff came up to Whitney and me.

"Who was blow drying their hair in your apartment?" It was pointless to lie, I was the only one with half wet hair.

"Me." I answered.

"What were you doing? Your apartment smells weird."

"Did it smell like this?" I held up my kool-aid covered hand to his nose, he smelt.

"Yeah, that's it," he said. I briefly explained my experiment gone awry. "Come with me, the fire chief wants to talk to you."

As I was pulled away from the circle I dragged Whitney with me, after all it was her hair dryer and I was not going to face this alone. It was as we were being pulled away that Laurie yelled, "Kim! It was you who set the fire alarm off!?" Now, everyone noticed, and I was embarassed, it was only a matter of minutes before the whole building knew that I had set the fire alarm off by trying to dye my hair with kool-aid.

We went upstairs to our room where the fire chief asked me questions, took down my name and personal information, told me never to do it again and left. Whitney and I sat down on the floor and laughed for a good ten minutes. When Laurie came up I shot her a look that sent her justifying what she had said, her best excuse, "I wouldn't have done it, but you're the perfect one!" Yeah, its lame, because I'm far from perfect and don't even project that persona.

All in all it wouldn't have been so bad if I had purple hair to show for it, as it is, I still smell like grape.

Lesson: Don't dye your hair with kool-aid, and if you do, don't try and blow dry your hair for another week... at least.