#WorldWatercolorGroup - Day 3 - Dog Good Hair Day - Doodlewash
By Charlie

A Good Hair Day

Written by Charlie O'Shields

One of the happiest days one can achieve is a good hair day. That moment in the morning when you look at yourself in the mirror before walking out the door and your other self seems to mouth, “Wow, look at you! You look good!” or even better, “Whoa, hey there sexy!” Like many exceptional days, they don’t always happen on a regular basis. Most days, I personally feel rather lucky to have my reflection say, “Well, at least it looks like you managed to shower first.” I really should invest a bit more time getting ready each day, but then I realize I’m just heading to work and not out for a date so I skip the less meticulous bits and move on. I let my hair do whatever happens in a couple quick brushes and charge on with my morning. When I was younger, I would spend a bit more time. It wasn’t that I was more vain, it was simply that the efforts produced more satisfying results. As I get older, I like to laugh at my laugh lines, tamp my hair down a bit so it loses the post-shower mad scientist look, and shave when I start to resemble Santa Claus. And every day is still a rather a good one, so I don’t worry about it very much.

When I was young teen in the 80’s, I was surrounded by really big hair. Truly, it was huge. Girls would pass by me with bangs so high they looked like they’d just licked an electrical socket. If you had rather straight and thick hair it could come across as a bit cool, but if you had thin curly hair it looked more like you’d just been stranded for several days in Florida. It wasn’t just the girls, either. Guys would let their hair grow out to extraordinary lengths inspired by what we now call 80’s hair bands. I didn’t have that kind of hair and always wished I had that sort of straight thick hair that flops around and always falls into exactly the proper place. One summer, I tried a product called “Sun In” that was meant to give your hair a tint of blond as though you’ve just spent a summer on the beach. I apparently used too much or, as stated previously, just had the wrong hair, and ended up looking like an exploded orange. I spent my return to school wearing a lot of hats, hoping people would unintentionally think I was setting the next fashion trend. Instead, I just got a lot of weird stares, but I blame the hat I chose.

There are those of us blessed with the perfect genes and then there’s the majority of us. Those stuck with some good bits and some not so good. A lovely blend of what our parents and their parents gave to us. But, when you put all of the bits together, I always think it’s sort of awesome how it makes each of us so truly unique. And that, in the end, is the best bit of all! It would be terribly dull to be just like everyone else. It’s nice to have that little mole or that crazy cowlick on your head that you can’t quite tamp down no matter how hard you try. It’s what makes us who we are and truly, what makes us so darn lovable to those who appreciate us. If I had to go back, I don’t think I’d want that hair after all. I was just crazy me, with all my foibles, normal hair and lofty dreams. The only difference now is the hair has gotten a bit grayer, but I’ve equally gotten a bit wiser. There’s little point in trying to be something you’re not. You’ll always end up back to being just blissfully you, and, in the end, that’s the best place in the world to be. We’re all pretty amazing in our own way. As long as we commit to being whatever we imperfectly perfectly are, then it’s rather certain we’ll always have a good hair day.

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About the Doodlewash

Da Vinci Paint Co.: Yellow Ochre, Quinacridone Red, Terra Cotta and Cobalt Blue.  Lamy Al-Star Safari Fountain Pen with sepia ink in an A5 Hahnemühle Watercolour Book.
  #WorldWatercolorGroup - Day 3 - Dog Good Hair Day - Doodlewash

 

Charlie O'Shields

Creator of Doodlewash, founder of World Watercolor Month (July), World Watercolor Group, and host of the Sketching Stuff Podcast. Sharing watercolor illustrations and stories while proudly featuring talented artists from all over the world!

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41 thoughts on “A Good Hair Day”

  1. Sounds like the time I thought all the temporary red hair dye I’d used had washed out and tried to go blond. I looked like a fire engine. Strangely, every one told me how cool it looked. I was in London, England at the time and it was the 70’s so maybe it did. I had no idea how to replicate it and was too poor to find a hairdresser who did, so it was one of my 15 minutes of fame. Cute li’l doggie. You didn’t introduce him!

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  4. Hehehe. Sun in. Yup. Some of the products out there are awful. for the first ten years I usually had green hair, I was constantly in a pool and had white-blond hair, hence the green tint from the chlorine. After it turned a natural ash brownish I couldn’t successfully color it as the base color of ash is a weird yellow-ish. Bleaching causes a terrible undercolor so I decided ash was ok with me. Sounds like you have a color that has an unusual undercolor too. It makes you unique which, it seems, you’ve already figured out. Good on you, Charlie!

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much, Jennifer! 😃💕 I think the undercolor is just my Irish heritage shining through. I was hoping for the blue black hair, but got the brown kind with a hint o’ red. Yeah, chlorine was thick in pools back then… I couldn’t stand the smell, so never liked swimming much. 😊

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  8. This little guy you painted – a papillon? – is too adorable for words, which is why he was willing to pose and therefore get the image right. He seems to be asking if he can have the promised treat now. By your photo, Charlie, you came out pretty good, hair or not. As for any good genes I inherited, you can tell that I got the coveted turquoise ones.

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  10. I should’ve waited to get on Doodlewash to make that comment, so I’d get some DO points 🤣 Charlie, when are you going to get some more travel palettes in exchange for points? Pleeease 🖌🌸🙏🏻

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      1. Oh, cool, I can’t wait! I neeeeeed to get some more points so I’ll be ready, haha! A lot of good things about wordpress, but it is slower to load on my comp. and it takes me a lot of time when on Doodlewash, so I have to work at it. Worth it, though! 🌟

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          1. Thank you, I don’t think the problem is caused at your end? WordPress always has a lag, on my website anyway, and I don’t have the fastest internet, so *it’s probably me* 😳🤣

  15. That sure is a good hair day! Such a cutie! I had some good hair days with a long, long shag with naturally wavy hair. Alas, at 18 I had a scalp condition, and my good hair days were all gone. Now, just a lot of the hair is gone!…..lol!

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  16. Sorry for all the comments, Charlie – I’m catching up after a bad month. Anyways, this doggie is so cute! His/her expression and head tilt reminds me of how my chihuahua holds herself.

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