Pink Hair for Colleen - Kyleigh's Story

I took the day off today and spent it with Ashli. When I went to her house to pick her up, some of Kyleigh's classwork was out on the table. Baileywick has started sending it home since it is the end of the year. Ashli shared one of the stories with me. In September, Kyleigh wrote the following story. I asked if I could share it on the blog because the day she is referring to took place on June 3, 2008. To remember that day and to honor my sweet Colleen, I will be getting my hair dyed pink again. What Kyleigh's story doesn't tell you is the background... how we all ended up with pink hair that day.

You see, Colleen's favorite color was pink. When she lost her hair, we started talking about what we would do when it grew back in. We would talk about all sorts of crazy things when we were bored waiting around in hospitals and in clinics with nothing better to do but chat. She decided that when her hair grew in, she wanted to dye it pink. Well, my friend Candi, was coming to visit from New Jersey and Candi is a hairdresser. I asked Candi to bring the stuff to make Colleen's hair pink. When I spoke to Colleen about it, she said that she wanted to wait until her hair was longer. (Even though we had already spoken to her about dying, none of us knew how long it would be although the doctors suspected it would only be a matter of weeks. However, we did not share that with Colleen.) I did not want her to wait so I encouraged her to dye her hair while Candi was visiting. "How often do you have a hair dresser in your house willing to do everyone's hair at once? Everyone is going to do it! Even Daddy and Gracie (the dog)!". So, we invited Kyleigh and Alexa (Colleen's two best friends) over to spend the afternoon with Colleen and get their hair dyed pink! This is where Kyleigh's story picks up and she tells it very well. I loved reading it and I hope you do too!

I could smell my chicken sticks and fries from Burger King as I walked through the door. I was also wondering if I would look good in pink hair or not. While Alexa, Colleen and I were eating our delicious chicken and fries. I could see the hair stylist pouring out the hot pink dye. I was still thinking if I would look good, but I was doing this for a friend. I could smell the dye. It smelled like alcohol. We did not like it one bit so we plugged our noses the whole time. Before the stylist dyed my hair, I got to touch the dye. It felt like a milk shake because it was real thick. The hair stylist got some tin foil and laid a chunk of my hair on the loud tin foil. She took a big brush and dipped it in the dye and she let the extra dye drip off the brush. Drip! Drop! Drip! Drop! She slowly painted the hot pink dye on my hair. I could hear the crackling of the tin foil when she folded it up so it could dry. Cridy, crack, cridy, crack. Up next was Colleen's dad (Mr. Vince). Colleen said "You dye your head first and I will go last". A few minutes later Mr. Vince walked in Colleen's room with a head full of hot pink hair. Alexa, Colleen and I were laughing so hard because it was a trick. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Colleen was just going to dye a little bit in the front of her head. The hair stylist took off the tin foil from all of us. I could feel my heart thumping while she took the tin foil off. Thump, thump, thump. All of us looked in the mirror, and Colleen said "We look awesome!". And from now on when I look in the mirror, I think of Colleen and Alexa. ~ Story and Picture by Kyleigh Kestner, 9/24/2008