Melissa, Oh?

I was born with auburn hair. In fact, I was a redhead through all of my younger years – and I hated it. I hated being called “Carrot Top” or “Copper Top” or “Red” or whatever else came to mind.

This was taken in 1983, but if you sub that cup of milk for a cup of coffee and that crayon for a computer, and I'm still doing the same thing today ...

Then I started growing up and someone told me guys actually like redheads.

My friend Steve and me hanging out on Fripp Island, 1995.

Then my hair started getting darker – something I knew would happen, as my dad is a natural redhead and his hair got darker, too; in fact, it’s almost black now.

One of the last pics of me before I put color in my hair, on New Year's Eve 2007 with Ronnie.

So finally I decided to do something about it. I went to my trusted hair stylist, Tommy (who has been making my hair beautiful since 2002), and I asked him to put red in my hair. “Red?” he said. “I’m thinking blonde!” I never ever ever saw myself as a blonde but one thing I do know is that Tommy knows his stuff. So blonde it was!

Colleen and me a few months ago. She's still a redhead, naturally!

And I loved the blonde so much I never ever ever wanted to change it. But the one thing I love more than being blonde is not being stuck with the same hairstyle. So when I went to see Tommy yesterday and he said, “How about a fall color?” my ears perked up.

“Well,” I said, “If I’m not going to be blonde anymore, I want to be red!” Hello, red. It’s good to see you again.

In the car yesterday, trying to drive and check out my new hair at the same time ...

I look in the mirror and I almost forget I was ever blonde. Will I ever be blonde again? Of course I will. I loved it even more than red, I think. But I want my hair to always change, and this works for winter. I walked into Kevin’s house last night and Mia, my 3-year-old niece, greeted me with, “Missa, why is your hair red?”

I wasn’t quite sure how to answer that one! “Because Grandpa [my dad] had red hair?” “Because I wanted it to be red?” Finally I said, “Because Tommy made it that way!”

P.S. Here’s another photo after I had a chance to play with it a little: