Poiple.

I've had a few different hair colors over the past 20 years.

When I was a toddler, I had white blonde hair. As I grew older, it got darker, and by the time I was a teenager it was a mid brown color. I didn't like it - hated it, in fact - so I used to get it frosted so it was blonde again.

When I was in my 20's, I decided that I wanted to be a redhead:

I colored my hair red, and I stayed red for many years. Almost a whole decade, to be exact.

Artificially colored red hair is difficult to maintain; the color molecules are larger and don't bond as well with the hair shaft as other colors do, so consequently they tend to fade pretty quickly. I had to color my hair once a month to keep it the vibrant red that I liked.

I've had forays into the blonde side of the house:

(Yes, that's me in uniform, and yes, that's a gun on my belt. I'm wearing a kevlar vest, too - I'm not really that stocky, honest!)

I never really liked being blonde; I swear I could feel my IQ drop a few points every time I got my highlights done.

A couple of years ago, I decided to cross over to the dark side. Not just any dark side; a dark side with purple highlights:

I loved my hair like that, and so did Urbaner. Last February I got a wild hair up my ass, cut it all off and decided I was too old for purple highlights. I chose a mid brown color, close to my natural color, and tried to grow up.

It didn't work. It sounds vain, but I pined for my purple hair. Urbaner said he missed it too. Last week I decided that growing up and dressing your age is highly overrated, and this is what I did:

I went darker, and I got my poiple back.

My poiple is back. I'M back.

W00t!