"It's great being blonde; with such low expectations it's easy to impress."

I'm a brunette. At various times I've played up my hair's faint reddishness with chemicals, but it's always been dark. Last night, Steve jokingly proposed that I go blonde.

"No way. It's all wrong for my coloring, and besides, the neverending cycle of root touchups and highlights is too expensive."

(Seriously, that article made me want to break things. For every uber-rich Manhattanite who spends $500 per month on her hair and can afford it, there are two dozen other women there and elsewhere forking over half that to the salon when they could be saving or paying down debt. I've seen it. Meanwhile, a men's haircut is how much?)

Besides, when the reaction of others to less than 100 percent successful attempts at "self improvement" is something like this, I'm sorely tempted to keep my money and maintain my present look. Then again, not all women think being a girl is all about instantaneously and superficially judging every other female in range.

Maybe a new pair of shoes would be nice.