BRAND LOYALTY

          Is it because I’m a Taurus that I place so much importance on brand loyalty? Does buying the same products year after year feed my need for security?  When I try something new I have a momentary feeling of anxiety - what if I like the new brand better? Or is my life just so boring that any change shakes things up?  I think part of it is this never-ending drought and heat. Watching lawns die was one thing but now that the leaves of beautiful mature trees are crinkling up and drying out two months before normal, I need something to distract me.

          So yesterday I went to Walmart. Walking down the school supply aisle I feel like I’m twelve-years-old again. I want to buy a new pencil box! But I have four already that are in perfectly good condition.  Oh, look at the cool new rulers! I don’t need a ruler. But I do need a new spiral notebook.  I can buy three-subject college-ruled or one-subject wide ruled. I want one-subject college ruled.  I choose two wide-ruled and have a tingle as I anticipate all the information that will be committed to these pages. When I get home I date the front and retire the April-August one to a nearby shelf.

          I pick up two packets of pencils: black for boys and pink flowers for girls. These are for the class I’m supposed to start teaching on August 23, a six-week program at Art2Heart dance & art studio. It’s been five months since I finished my program at Tom Daniels Elementary and none of the classes I proposed for summer panned out.  I hope I remember how to teach.

          But back to new things: for a long time I’ve watched TV ads for Garnier hair products.  I’m tantalized by the promise of shiny tresses, even though my hair is short now.  The reason I’ve never bought their shampoo is that I can’t stand the apple-green color of the bottles.  My bathroom has a beach theme with soothing blues and purples. True, I have a magenta towel, but that’s still a “cool” color.

          In the last few years I bought Pantene, in white bottles, until my nieces ex-boyfriend, a hairdresser, said it coats your hair with wax. I switched over to Dove, also in white.  This year I bought Clairol Herbal Essence because (1) I remember when my mother used to wash my grandmother’s hair in the bathtub, the first year Herbal Essence came out – it was dark green and smelled delicious, and (2) the new pale lavender shampoo smelled good.  But those Garnier ads kept calling to me.

          Not long ago I bought Garnier under-eye roller, which is a concealer with caffeine that’s supposed to diminish dark circles and puffiness. I don’t have a lot of puffiness but I’ve always had dark circles, which my mother used to say looked like “two burned holes in a blanket.”

          So, yesterday I broke down and decided to try Garnier shampoo.  There was a display at the end of an aisle – a sale! But the bottles were nearly quart-size, which would not do at all.  I was not ready to make that sort of commitment, plus I have weak wrists and could barely get my hand around the circumference of the bottles.

          Down the aisle I found smaller sizes and after looking at all the types of shampoo available – for shine, for curls, for thin hair, for dry/damaged hair, etc. I chose Triple Nutrition Fortifying Shampoo for Extra Dry, Damaged Hair.  The green apple smell is lovely.

          But do you think there was a matching conditioner?  No. However I found Sleek & Shine Frizz Defeat Deep Treatment, for Fuzzy, Dry, Unmanageable Hair.  I couldn’t smell it because it’s a foam and I would have had to take out the little stopper and press the top, then where would I rub it?  So I took a chance and bought it.

          When I went to bed I felt like I did when I was a little girl who had new shoes to wear to school the next day.  I couldn’t wait to slip them on and yet I felt sad that the smooth soles would get scratched up with wear.

          After my morning walk, which was unusually muggy and oppressive, I fed the dog, fed the cats, had a glass of juice and took a shower.  I inhaled the green apple fragrance as I squeezed shampoo into my palm. Too much?  Not enough? Rinsing, I found my hair felt nice and slippery, but I still had to put on the Deep Treatment and let it set for three minutes.  I turned down the water to a dribble while I washed and shaved my legs.

          And now, after a delicious breakfast and cup of coffee I sit at my desk with my hair air-drying, giddy with anticipation that I may have something new to love.