A Shopping Adventure

I call it a shopping adventure since I was shopping (again!) and there was an incident which I think you’ll find amusing. And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with the bargains I may or may not have found that day (all the great deals are beginning to blur) but with what happened behind my back while I was going through a rack of dresses. “Tell us the story!” you shout. And I surely will. As soon as you click on the More link.

One day last spring I was out for an afternoon of feminine relaxation and for me that means getting dressed and cruising to my favorite hot bargain stores to see what’s on sale. That day I was visiting Nordstrom’s Rack and I was feeling pretty good about myself since my jeans were fitting very well and I had just gotten some new hair — on sale.

The wig store I have been frequenting here in the suburban Philadelphia area carries a lot of the brands that are marketed to women of color. The quality of the hair is not bad and the prices are not bad at all. Most styles in synthetic hair range from twenty something to forty or fifty dollars. With the economy in the state it’s in who can afford expensive hair?

I went in one day to buy a wig in my usual style and to my dismay they were not in stock. The one I was wearing at the moment had gotten so frizzed and was shedding more than a long haired dog in the summertime that I needed a replacement fast. (I tend to be a serial wig wearer. I stick with one till it starts to get to funky and then I move to the next.)

Looking around the store I found a wig that was a bit younger and naughtier than a woman of my years should wear — but the price was so low, and is was similar enough to my regular style, that I broke down and bought it. It was from a line of wigs marketed under the name of a young multi-racial actress/singer named Dena Cali.

What made the wig naughty? The top of it was a dark blonde but the hairs faded into almost platinum blonde at the tips. Right out of the bag it had that bounce and shine that you only get in sexy, young hair. Far to attention grabbing for a lady who just wants to blend in while shopping.

But here she was, wearing a tight pair of jeans with a short sweater and her bouncy, eye catching hair, shopping in the Rack. As I went through the dresses I heard part of a conversation behind me. A woman’s voice said, ” Now, you stop bothering the young lady. That’s not even her hair.”

I heard a low male voice mutter something and took a quick, surreptitious glance in the direction the voices were coming from. I saw a very tall African American man with a tall African American woman. I then noticed that the “man” was more than likely a large youth. This was reinforced by the way the woman talked to him. She was being his mom rather than a partner.

What I inferred from her words was that he had been checking me out, possibly on the verge of saying something to me, and had said something to his mother about my sexy hair. The thing I found funny and encouraging was that she knew I was wearing a wig but she had called me a “young lady”.

Now, it’s quite possible that she knew the whole deal but while she was willing to let her son know he had been attracted by a sexy, youthful wig, she wasn’t willing to let him know that the young lady wasn’t actually a lady. Or, she just didn’t notice that the goods I was advertising were not in the package.

Whatever she actually thought I finished looking around for bargains and left the store tickled that I had been looked at as a sex object by an adolescent boy (a very tall adolescent boy) and had been called a “young lady” by his mom. I also realized that the Dena Cali wig was a heavy weapon to unleash on males and it should only be used with care. A thing like that could attract the attention of someone whose mom wasn’t around to discourage him from “bothering” me. And he might be someone I wouldn’t want to be bothered by.

I went on wearing the wig for a few months, excluding it from daytime duty and only using it for evening wear with my boyfriend or while I hostessed my monthly Laptop Lounge parties. When it started to get frayed around the edges I looked into finding a new one and learned that Dena Cali was out of the wig biz. I just found out that most of the styles marketed under that name are now available under the the Bobbi Boss brand but looking though their site I didn’t see the dangerous style that got the attention at Norstrom’s Rack. It’s probably out there though. Someday I’ll find it on the Internet and it will be just waiting to start some trouble.

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment