Josie peaked into her older sister Wendy’s room from just around the door jam and watched while Wendy style her permed blond hair. It was a rare occurrence that the door was open. Wearing her White Lion t-shirt and ripped stone washed jeans, Wendy sat crisscrossed on her brown shag carpet in front of a floor length mirror. Axl Rose sang his ballad, Sweet Child of Mine, in the background.
To Josie, Wendy was like a rock star of a hair band: the epitome of cool and all together inaccessible. She didn’t want to hang out with some stupid groupie, like Josie.
With just a few tools: her hairspray crusted curling iron, her jumbo purple and white can of Aqua Net hair spray and her black rat comb, Josie watched Wendy turn her blond perm into what looked like a pharaoh’s crown of hair. Curl, tease, spray – curl, tease, spray. With a final flourish she lifted the purple and white can again and sprayed her perfectly manipulated hair with enough hair spray to endure a midwestern tornado on steroids.
“What are you staring at?” Wendy turned her attention to the door.
“Nothing,” Josie said, bringing herself into full view.
“Don’t be a spaz,” Wendy snapped. “What do you want?”
“It’s just,” Josie stumbled on her words. Most of their interactions resulted with Wendy’s irritation or her door slamming in Josie’s face. “Will you do my hair?”
Wendy’s face lit up, just for a moment, before her angsty teen attitude got the better of her. Then just as quickly, her face fell back into its usual disinterest.
“Yeah. Whatever,” she said. “But you have to let me do whatever I want.”
“What do you mean, ‘whatever you want?’” There was no end to what Wendy was capable of doing. Maybe she was playing a trick on her, and Josie would end up bald. Did Wendy have a hair clipper? Or what if Wendy tried to use Barb’s perm solution and rollers. Would Josie die from the smell of it? Or would all her hair fall out from her novice beautician sister?
“Oh relax,” Wendy said. “I’m just going to style it. What’s the worst that could happen, you have to take a bath tonight? You could use a hose down anyway.”
“Okay.” Still hesitant, Josie sat on the floor in front of the mirror. She did ask. Was it possible Wendy was just being nice for a change?
“Mmmmm,” said Wendy. She ran her fingers through Josie’s long brown hair, getting them stuck in a mat of tangles. “Do you ever brush this?”
Josie tried to remember if she had brushed her hair that day. Hmmm. Maybe.
Wendy began to brush Josie’s hair, with surprising gentleness, holding each chunk of hair at the roots to prevent the tangles from pulling on Josie’s scalp.
“Will you make my hair look like yours?”
In the reflection of the mirror, Josie looked at the two of them. Josie was seven to Wendy’s fifteen. She was brunette to Wendy’s blond. She was small compared to Wendy’s larger than life.
“I have an idea,” said Wendy. She began by segmenting Josie’s long brown hair into three sections: the crown of the head, the back middle and the base of the skull. Each section was pulled into a ponytail and then she grabbed the Aqua Net.
“What are you doing?” asked Josie.
“Shhh. Just turn around. You can’t look until I’m done.”
Josie scooted on her bottom, turning to face Wendy. Wendy looked so pretty when she wasn’t frowning. Most of the time she was angry at Josie or their parents. Really, everybody.
Josie watched as Wendy worked, careful not to complain about any pulling or tugging of her hair. With each section of hair, Wendy fell into a pattern of ratting and spraying, ratting and spraying. Through the haze of hair spray, Josie noticed Wendy nibbling on her bottom lip in concentration.
“Cover your eyes and hold your breath,” Wendy instructed
With her hands to her face, Josie could hear the hiss of the hairspray, feel the damp, sticky air against her skin and smell the floral and chemical scent of the Aqua Net as Wendy sprayed all around her small head.
“Done.” Wendy said. “Turn around.”
Josie gasped for air. With the Appetite for Destruction album now nearly finished, she faced the mirror and was astonished to see the length of her brown hair miraculously turned into a mohawk created from three rock hard and gravity defying chunks of hair.
“How did you do that?” she whispered in astonishment.
“Aqua net is super strong,” said Wendy. “It can do anything.”
In the mirror’s reflection, Josie watched as Wendy laughed, flicking the unmoving towers of hair. Josie smiled at her sister’s reaction to the crusty masterpiece. It seemed to Josie; Wendy was right. Aqua Net could do anything.