The Sink

As far back as I can remember the women in my family have washed their hair in the kitchen sink.  I know.  Get the comet out, scrub the sink and wash your hair.  There is a reason for this.

For my grandmother, it was because she didn't have a shower in her house and Henry.  She had this beautiful claw foot tub, but no shower.  She had a huge porcelain sink in her kitchen, with a built in drain board.  I can still smell that clean sweet water coming out of the faucet on a warm summer evening.

Moving forward, to homes with tubs and showers, my mother, my sister and even myself would wash our hair in the bathroom sink.  I can still see my mother bent over the sink with a handful of this pink cream shampoo called Lustre Cream that came in a huge jar, and a bottle of vinegar to rinse it out.  OMG.  The smell.

So, why?  No one wanted to get water in their face or eyes.  Why?  Because Henry, our cousin drowned sometime in the 1930s  and everyone knows if you get in water, you're going to drown.  Therefore, no one in our family was allowed to go swimming or learn to swim, or wash your hair in THE SHOWER.

I was a renegade, in so many ways during my teen years.  Uncontrollable I was because I started washing my hair in the shower.  Until the other day, when I got up one Saturday, took a shower, put my make up on and told Mr. QVC that he was going to highlight my hair like he did in the old days.  WHAT?  He said, "You'll have to get back in the shower to wash it all out."  "No" I said.  I'm going to wash my hair in the kitchen sink.  Since we remodeled our 1995 kitchen, I have put in a larger, deeper sink, that I can drown in, along with a nice spray nozzle on the faucet.

After my hair went through shades of orange and gold, it finally got to the lemon yellow I was looking for.  I took the plastic bag off of my head and I went for it.  I about lost my Episcopalianess, when the water started to rush down my face, into my eyes, down my neck, up my nose and in my ears.  What fresh hell was this I was experiencing?

I finally got it all washed out, toned, conditioned and dried.  I then reapplied my Saturday makeup and revealed to Mr. QVC his awesomeness that saved me $300.  A $10 kit from Walmart and it looks fabulous.

But, I will never again wash my hair in the kitchen sink unless for some reason my shower is broken.