This rockstar life

3.5 Barnet

Emerging from the bathroom rubbing perfunctorily at his head with a towel, Steve wanders over to his dresser in search of a comb. He glances over to where his girlfriend is blow-drying her hair in front of the mirror. After studying her for a few seconds he asks "Is your hair..." and then repeats louder, "Is your hair getting redder?"

Turning off the dryer, Alice pulls up a strand of her hair and squints at it in the mirror.

"Mm maybe? The dye's probably washing out."

"It's DYED?!"

"Er, yeah?" She is bemused by Steve's oddly intense reaction to this seemingly very unexciting fact. "It's not grey or anything, it's just a tint" she says defensively.

"What colour is it really, underneath?"

"Sort of... dark auburn I guess? Reddish brown."

"Oh my god! She was right!" He's holding his head as if pained, but also grinning.

Confused, Alice makes a questioning face.

"Marth, Lorelei, always said I had a thing about redheads. I thought I'd broken the pattern, and now I find out I'm shacked up with a secret redhead!"

Laughing, Alice points out "No, but you did break it! You fancied me as a brunette, not knowing about the red. QED. Unless... do you fancy me more? Now you know?"

Steve considers, "Hmm, about the same I think? But that's not the point. I fell in love with your... soul, and stuff. And that's always been a redhead."

"Oh. That's so sweet."

He smiles fondly at her big-eyed Bambi expression reflected in the mirror. "You women with your feminine wiles. Us poor men have no chance."

"I am not responsible for your gender not knowing about hair dye and Wonderbras!"

"Wonder-what?"

"Nevermind."

Alice goes back to trying to tame her fringe while Steve, comb found, attacks his own unruly mop. When she switches the hairdryer off again she hears 'Ow. Ow. Oh god.'.

Steve holds the comb up, with clumps of blond hair stuck in it, "I'm going bald!"

"No you're not, you're just pulling it too much. Give it here."

Taking the comb, she kneels behind him on the bed and gently starts to tease out the knots.

"Ow."

"Shush." She works on it silently for a few minutes. "It is pretty bad actually. There's practically a dreadlock back here!"

"Uh huh."

"It's all the bleach. And the backcombing. And going to bed with wet hair."

"Mm hmm." Steve has stopped complaining and his eyes are closed, lulled into tranquillity like a monkey being groomed by its mate.

"I could plait it for you, before bed? You'd look adorable!" She twists his hair into a loose rope and tugs on it, turning his head so she can see his profile reflected in the wardrobe mirror.

"Whatever you think."

Alice cups her hand under his chin and tilts his head back to comb the shorter section at the front. Steve looks up at her with heavy-lidded eyes, and the corner of her mouth quirks up. He turns to catch her waist and eases her back onto the bed, the curtain of newly-smoothed hair falling around their faces as their lips meet.

(July 1990)

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Note 'barnet' is English slang for hair