New Image.

Since I gave up my job I have cut back on things. One of the things to go was hair dye, an unnecessary extravagance (like heating fuel). So the blonde that I have had for the past erm maybe seven years has had six months of growing out. Consequently I had hair with dark brown and grey for the first four inches, followed by a line where the blonde started, and blonde down my back.

No, not exactly sexy.

Anyway, I wondered about doing something with it before the interview this week. Does the grey give me a distinguished look? Or do I just look neglected? Neglected won, so I decided to buy some dye my natural colour and hope that when it grows out, it doesn't show up as badly as the blonde growing out does.

Of course, when you're standing in the shop you can't see what your natural colour is, can you? I ended up holding boxes up to my forehead and asking passers by if each one looked about right. A pair of surprised looking teenagers finally decided that colour number 3 was right, so I bought it, hoping it was.

It took me a couple of days to get up the courage to apply the dye. This is not because I was worried about the colour. Far from it. It's the standing around semi-naked in a sub-zero atmosphere, while the dye takes, that I found daunting.

Yesterday, I finally took the bull by the horns and went for it. Thankfully, it has come out quite even. There is no line where the blonde had got to. It is however a bit darker than I expected. There's a lot more black in it than my natural dark brown.

Nick's description was 'Gothic'. I now have witchy, blackish hair. It may take a bit of getting used to.