REACTIONS TO THE EVER-CHANGING MOHAWK

Once RAAM was over, and my hair had faded from red to orange for the second time, I figured it was about time for another color. I put the following picture on Facebook for people to vote on:

A couple people voted for pink, but the overwhelming majority was for blue. My husband was one of them. I figured if I can’t make him happy by growing all of my hair back, I can at least make sure the small amount of hair I do have is a color he likes! I bleached out the orange once, and let it rest, so for a day it was almost pink:

Lately I haven’t received any funded ideas for patterns to shave, so I decided to start at square one. The first pattern I ever shaved was a heart:

Design prep 

Bleached and ready for color!

Adding the blue

Just for fun - a wave!

Final product - always have to match the shirt!

It’s been fun matching my clothes to the current color of my mohawk, but I have to admit that the whole process of changing my hair by adding patterns or color has become less fun/interesting since lately it’s been only my own ideas. I miss shaving different patterns that were other people’s ideas. So if you have an idea you’d like to fund, please let me know! In the meantime, the mohawk grows and the sides stay shaved until I reach my goal of $2800…

It’s getting pretty long – I wonder how much longer I’ll be able to spike it straight up!

It even spikes pretty well when I just use water and let it dry:

After about 5 days the blue was fading, so I added more:

I’ve taken so many pictures of my hair that they’re all starting to look very similar… Here’s another picture of my spiky hair, after a Future of Forestry concert:

My husband and I actually met a couple at the concert who had a son and a daughter who both had mohawks. It was the strangest thing, because the woman was a runner and a drummer. And we had more in common; her name was Beth (also a shortened version of Elizabeth). Too many coincidences? Anyway, she approached me because of my mohawk. Who else knows a girl with a mohawk? I like to think it’s sort of a unique thing. Not that it’s about that. Not at all, in fact. I just don’t like to do things to be like everyone else. But there’s nothing I can do about it if other people have done similar things! Apparently celebrity kids are into blue mohawks too:

And I met a guy in Starbucks the other day who told me his son used to have a “Smurf blue” mohawk. So I guess since I’m very white with a blue mohawk, Smurfs are exactly the opposite, with a blue body and white mohawk-looking hat:

One of my co-workers told me the other day that my faded blue pastel-colored hair reminded her of My Little Pony:

There was one detour in this blue mohawk story: my RAAM team had a photo shoot after the race, which I was not expecting! So since my hair was blue, I put red gel on top, so that it would sort of match our red jerseys:

The gel was so strong that I actually slept with it in and kept it for the next day:

Then I went shopping in my closet. Hmm, do I have anything maroon with a hint of blue? Why, yes I do!

YWAM Homes of Hope shirt

A few days later, I finally got to show off the mohawk to the first two people I shared my fundraiser idea with:

They thought I was crazy, but in a good way, and they said it fit me well. Sorry Greg, my awesome husband who misses my long hair, everyone seems to like my new style!

So far I’ve only really gotten positive feedback about my hair style. The first problem I encountered is when I played for a concert at my church, for a NACM (the National Association of Church Musicians) conference. A lot of people attending the conference are conservative, and seeing my blue mohawk might offend them, or at the very least distract them from the music. I tried my best to find some black gel (a surprisingly hard feat!) but finally gave up and wore a beanie instead. Really, a beanie, in the middle of summer?!

Hat hair!

It actually wasn’t too bad, because although the A/C had stopped working for our Monday night rehearsal, it was repaired in time for the Wednesday night concert. A good thing too, because I just about passed out a few times at rehearsal because the heat was so intense. It felt a little weird having my beanie on, and a few people who’ve seen my hair actually came up to me after the concert and asked if I was hiding my mohawk, or if I didn’t have it anymore. I don’t know if anyone would have minded if I didn’t have my beanie, but I figure if even one person would have been offended, it was worth it.

A couple days later though, I played drums for a small workshop that was part of the conference. I wore my beanie again just in case, but the music directors actually told me to take it off and tell my story, because we were in a small, intimate setting and they were sure that people would be ok with it. And they were! I was glad that my head was “free” again – it felt like I was hiding a part of myself, and I have to admit that was a strange feeling.

At work and basically any other setting, I’m free to share my blue hair with everyone! I recently decided to bring back a past pattern, shaving “B” and “L” on the sides. It can either stand for Bald Love or Back to Life, my friend’s chiropractor company:

Hopefully this will bring more attention to my project!

My husband pointed out the other day that my mohawk gets more attention than my bald head did. I didn’t even realize this until he pointed it out…
Once, when we went out to lunch, he told me later that the entire restaurant, even the cooks in the back, turned and stared. Apparently I’m oblivious, because I didn’t even notice! I think that’s a good thing, because while I enjoy the conversations that arise when people notice my hair, it’s tempting to just want all the attention on myself. And that’s just an honest thought, because that’s how we (people) tend to be. But the great thing about this project is that it can’t be about me. It’s about my students. And the more attention I get, the more I get to shine that attention on my amazing students and their creativity, and how I can’t wait to see what they’ll do with a computer!

RAAM RED!

So the reason it’s been so long since my last blog post is because I’ve been busy Racing Across AMerica! I was recently a member of an 8-person bike team called Team Life Changers (www.teamlifechangers.org). I’ve done our bike logo on my head before:

We raced our bikes 2989.5 miles from Oceanside, CA to Annapolis, MD. Our team colors were red and black, so I figured a red mohawk was in order. The day before the race, I put on some red gel and one of the only red shirts I own, compliments of CLIF bar:

6/17/11

Then we went down to Oceanside and had everything inspected. Here I am, hoping that I put my helmet stickers on correctly:

Pretty soon, it was picture time! Getting ready:

Here’s our awesome team – father/daughter (youngest at 15yo), father (his daughter was our assistant chef), father/son (second youngest at 14yo, father represented in empty jersey), husband/wife, missionary:

My husband is more bald than me now!

I had so much trouble finding a “real” red hair dye! Before trying any color, I bleached it and re-shaved our team logo bike pattern:

6/15/11

The first color I tried made my hair bright pink:

RED wine...really?

So then I bleached it again…twice:

Crossing my fingers that bleach won't ruin the color!

Then I tried a color called Coral Red, which made it orange:

Pretty, but not what I had in mind...

Finally I found a (different brand) color called “Truly Red.” I kept the orange underneath, and it worked!

6/16/11: Much better! Red with a hint of orange, just like our team color.

I tried to take as many pictures of my hair on this trip as possible. The red faded quickly back to orange, but for the most part, it matched our jerseys. Here I am on about the fourth day:

6/23/11

A couple days later, it faded more…but you can barely notice with the beautiful background of the Appalachians in West Virginia!

6/25/11

Later that day (I think; the days all sort of blended into one, with a schedule of “sleep when you’re done, wake up when it’s time to ride again”), I made myself a recovery drink with a hand-made funnel while trying to balance with in the moving RV:

You can barely make out the image of the bike...

Later still that day (maybe?), we made a stop at Gettysburg, and got a picture with my husband:

You can't see here, but he actually shaved his head bald for this trip!

Finally, 7 days, 8 hours, and 30 minutes later, we arrived at the finish line! Hair = completely orange:

I had planned on dyeing it again during the trip if I could, but I valued sleep too much. I’m surprised I actually got a chance (correction: TOOK a chance) to shave my head in the middle of all of this. At any rate, I brought my red gel with me, so when we had our celebration wine, I once again had red hair:

The next day, my husband and I went for a nice relaxing ride, AEB this right here:

It's good to be done!

I flew home the next day, and my husband is still making his way home in one of the RV’s. In the meantime, my head has become a bit fuzzy:

It’s time to bust out the razor again!

Finally, shaved the sides…

And, just in time for 4^th of July, I dyed it red once again:

7/2/11

7/3/11

Happy Independence Day – God Bless America! It truly is a beautiful country, and it was amazing to experience 401.25 miles of it on a bike. Maybe some day I’ll do the whole thing…

INTERVIEW

Somehow my Bald Love story made it all the way to Florida, to a Music Therapist named Michelle. She contacted me for a Skype interview. Awesome! She shared it on her blog, http://musictherapytween.com/, and I thought I’d share it here as well. Michelle asks me questions about Bald Love:

I thought it was great that she wanted to ask my advice, to help inspire other MT’s to start their own fundraisers. Mine has been very successful, and I’m glad to help!

WATCH OUT FOR THE FIRE!

Are you ready to see how we keep up with social network stuff at ASD? This is the coolest thing. Since most of our students have video clearance (including for sites like YouTube and Facebook), I was able to post a clip of the video we’re working on. Awesome! The song is called “Watch Out for the Fire.” Since we’re still working on recording the lyrics, I chose an instrumental section to post. It includes a drum solo (played on a djembe) and a guitar solo (played by me on our electronic keyboard, but written by students). The students are not actually playing the instruments for the purpose of the music video; it’s more of a visual, because this scene is a concert. Ok, enough explanation…here it is!