OCTOBER 31 - DYED!

I was a little nervous turning up at KICK HAIR for my dyeing. I'd got rather fed-up of being bearded, and was really scared of changing colour. But, still, I arrived at KICK HAIR. As Dominic mixed-up the bleach, I sat into my chair, and a CD started to play - the Doors. Riders On The Storm. It didn't do much to calm my nerves... In this photo, you can see that the first application of bleach has started to lighten my hair (underneath the placcy bag, to keep the heat in,and therefore maximum bleach activity).After bleaching the hair, the beard was to come next. Dominic had told me not to wash my hair before coming to be dyed, but I'd forgotten - apparently washing opens up the pores, and makes bleaching more painful. Anyway, at this point, the bleachiness was just rather tingly. But when it came to bleaching the beard, it was not so nice. Ammoniac stenches shot up my nose, which was horrible, I didn't want to breath through my mouth, and my eyes started streaming if I kept them open. Not nice.It was about this point, with plastic bags around my head and face, pores fully open because idiot had washed his hair that morning, that it started to feel as if someone had grated my head & chin with a cheese-grater, and was rubbing chilli-oil into it. Not pleasant. You can see my hair is bleached blonde by now, and the tache is following... I couldn't keep my eyes open because of the fumes.And here I am, bleached, looking like a Rider of Rohan. I rather liked this look - I was kinda like Ewan McGregor, halfway through "Long Way Round".

And this is the first application of dye. It was so dark, I was quite upset as I thought this would be how the final colour would be - difficult to describe, as I couldn't understand how much colour would wash out. And I looked like a deadly polar-bear who'd just eaten a seal. Eek.



But after bleaching, it was OK. Mission successful, so far.
What do I mean, "mission successful"? I look like a freakyboy! Just have to hope the donations keep coming...

OCTOBER 29 - DONATING

Hello there again sportsfans.

There is a gift-aid section on the PRIMHE website:

www.primhe.org/markup/support-donate.cfm

If you wish to donate to PRIMHE through the gift-aid page, please remember to include in the form that you've been alerted to the charity by my magenta beard, so I can keep a better idea of how much I'm helping to raise!

Alternatively, cheques should be made payable to 'Primhe'.

The office address is:

Unit 6

2A Laurel Ave

Twickenham

TW1 4JA

On Friday, I had a telephone-interview with Radio Jackie, which will be broadcast on Monday. I hope I didn't stutter over too many of my words, and made sense!

Radio Jackie's broadcast range covers much of SW London, so hopefully there'll be a decent response.

Thanks also to a friend of my family, who has offered to help with printing posters - (it'll save me from having to colour in many more!) I'm not sure if he wants to be credited, so for now I'll leave him anonymous.

It's only 19 hours until Kick Hair start the bleaching/dyeing process, and I'm getting increasingly scared! After the colour's in, I will be scuttling all around Twickenham and Richmond putting up posters, and asking shop-owners and high-street businesses whether I can put up posters in the future. It's all about publicity now, and I hope that it'll be a bit easier with strange-coloured hair than it has been so far!

CT.

OCTOBER 29 - VIV STANSHALL

Hello there!

Today, I'm just posting a little something new - the lyrics to an obscure song (and rare to find), by my hero Vivian Stanshall. Most people probably only know him for his days with the Bonzo Dog Band in the 1960s, but he was so much more. A song-writer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, poet, author, comedian and performer. He is, to me, one of the greatest Englishmen to have ever lived. He died on March 5th 1995. He'd fallen asleep, dropped his cigarette into his beard, and then asphixiated before the house burnt down around him. I can't attach the file, I'm afraid, but I did try!

Vivian Stanshall was a brilliant talent, but was never prolific in his public output, as he suffered from depression. His depression was heightened by his love of drink, and the anti-depressant drugs that were prescribed to him - the mixture of pills and booze did not mix well. By all accounts he was impossible to work with, and tormented by his inner-demons on his bad days.

Apologies to Ki Longfellow-Stanshall if I've used a private picture here - I'll be in touch soon to see whether it's OK to keep this one here. ( http://gingergeezer.net )

I think Vivian Stanshall captures, perfectly, how depression can be, in this song. As far as I know, it was never published.

the Future.

If I had the confidence,

The courage or the common-sense,

The hutzpah or some happiness,

Then I could face the future.

If I could find a kindred spirit,

Wouldn't mind a friend to share it,

I'm the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul.

All that's second best in me

Is crying out for sympathy,

A nagging insecurity

Is begging me - don't try.

If there were an easier way,

A magic I could try,

Or someone else to do this thing for me,

Then fear must say its prayers...

Tonight.

OCTOBER 27 - THE BALL STARTS ROLLING

So after a frantic day of emailing yesterday, finally things seem to be happening. Whilst I'm still waiting for responses from all of the newspapers (and most of the radio stations) that I have contacted, Radio Jackie 107.8FM have agreed to interview me at noon today - I'm not sure how long the interview will be, or when it will be broadcast, but we'll see how it goes, hey?

I also had another phone-call from Kick Hair in Twickenham, who are going to dye me on Monday, just to confirm times and colour, and that I'll have to bleach it all first... (Eek.)

I didn't realise that the magenta colour will fade out after about 2 weeks, so I'm going to have to keep topping-up the colour!

I also printed out the first posters yesterday - I've decided it's probably easier to do them myself (especially as the local Post-Office can photocopy in A3). Unfortunately, this means that the posters have to be hand-coloured, which is a pain in the arse, but it means that I can easily make more posters if I run out, without having to bother with a printing company.

The posters were put up in the Rifleman pub, Fourth Cross Road, and in the Old Anchor pub, Richmond Road (both in Twickenham), and the response was really good - not much in the way of donations, but a lot of support. I was surprised by the number of people who came up & asked about my opinions on Depression, and how much people opened up with their own stories & experiences.

It ended up being a very moving evening.

A lot of people have asked why I'm dyeing Magenta. Well, I'm dyeing magenta for two reasons. Firstly, because magenta is the company colour for where I work, www.realale.com , and also of Kick Hair.

I figured that my boss wouldn't object so much to being dyed company colours, than if I was dyed an outlandish shade of blue or green, and also that Kick might be more willing to dye me!

Secondly, I suppose it might be quite cool to look like Animal from the Muppets.

But actually, I'm rather tired of this beard now - I've had it for three months. Three months of looking like a cartoon character - but that's been OK. But because I work in the beer industry, it is a little cliched that I should have a beard (& occassionally wear sandals!), and being at the Twickenham Beer Festival last weekend, surrounded by CAMRA beardos, I have started to feel a little weary of my facial hair. Still - only two months to go, and then I can shave again!

But I have a little magenta beardy adventure to experience first...

OCTOBER 26 - A LITTLE MORE INFO

The following is a little text that I wrote for my other blog, http://grotesquefurniture.blogspot.com , when I decided that I was definitely going to do this, and there was no turning back...
"About 3 months ago, I stopped shaving. Usually I'm crisp, clean shaven, short haired, and look the very model of a modern British citizen. But after 3 months of ignoring my razor, I now look like a freakish beardy - which is what I suppose I now am. The reason I've not been shaving, is because I intend to dye all this mass of hair magenta. Yup. The whole beard, all the hair. Magenta. I think my hair-mass weighs about four kilos now, so I will look quite a shocking sight. But this act of shameless dyeing is for a purpose, not just a change of looks. I'm dyeing it for charity - for Primhe, a charity which deals in primary healthcare for people with mental disabilities & Depression. Depression affects so many people (you probably don't need to look further than a family member, the man who you see at the train station each morning, your best friend, the lady at Tesco, the man next to you at the bar...), all trying to deal with things in their own way. Whilst depression is ultimately something that individuals have to sort out themselves, Primhe is there for people at every stage along the way. I've been wanting to help Prime for quite a while - initially it was to provide some of my cartoons for Primhe leaflets & publications, but I feel that by dyeing all my hair so that I look like Animal from the Muppets, is a much more public way of helping out.
I really hope to advertise what I'm doing, to highlight that Primhe is there. So many people don't think that there are people out there to help them.Even if I can't raise much money, if I can raise awareness, that would be great. After Stephen Fry's recent TV programme, and the amount of feedback from the press in its wake, Depression is really in people's minds at the moment (if you excuse the pun), and I really think (and hope) that people are starting to think of Depression as a real and tangible thing - a problem that many many people have to live with, and not an some affliction to excuse people's tantrums.Obviously, there are some people who don't understand, but as long as there are TV programmes, and charities out there, being loud & open about things, then that is a good thing. If anyone wants to find out more, please visit the Primhe website at http://www.primhe.org/ (which is just about to be updated), or send me an email - also if you'd like to sponsor me, then do get in touch. You can also leave a comment with your email address, and I'll get back to you."
In this country, there is no word to describe illnesses of the brain other than "mental". And when describing someone as 'mentally ill', most people see the stigmatic word "mental" than "ill". Primhe is dedicated to changing this perception, and helping those 1-in-4 of us who will fall ill during our lives.

OCTOBER 26 - WHERE CAN I DONATE

At the moment, if you'd like to donate some money to Primhe, please visit their website at www.primhe.org, or contact me at Chaos@London.com.
Donations can also be made at:
Real Ale Ltd: at their shop at 371 Richmond Road, Twickenham - just over Richmond Bridge.
The Old Anchor pub: also on Richmond Road, just next door to where the Mongolian BBQ used to be.
The Rifleman pub: on Fourth Cross Road, Twickenham (although I have to confirm that with the landlord).

I'm hoping that I'll be able to get hold of some collecting tins too, and stand on some street corners!
If anyone could help promote what we're doing, please please get in touch!

OCTOBER 25 - LETTER FROM PRIMHE

The following is a letter from Dr Chris Manning, explaining a little about Primhe - the charity who I'm raising money for...

“We all have a brain and sometimes it gets sick when the parts of it that deliver our mind (or ‘mental’ function) break down.
1 in 4 of us can expect that to happen at some time in our lives. The chances are that if this doesn’t happen to our own brain it will happen to the brain of someone else we know, love or care for. Even if we don’t get mentally ill as such, most of us are familiar with how we feel when we are stressed and the methods we use to cope with it (both healthy and not so healthy).

Primhe stands for Primary care mental health and education.

The charity works with people like GPs, pharmacists, nurses and people who design health care services, to help them to understand what is now known about the brain and its mental functions and what works best for us all when we, or those we love, are ill.
To do all this, Primhe has a website, produces journals and educational and training materials and meetings. The charity also lobbies hard for the importance of proper funding for people who are ill and the setting up of all sorts of facilities in communities (eg. exercise, self-help books in libraries, mindful employers who care for their staff) that keep us mentally healthy. Primhe has over 1000 supporters nationally and is now in the 5th year of its operation.

Primhe is extremely grateful to Chris Thomas for dyeing for Primhe!
Please give him all the support you can on his bearded mission to help the charity make a difference to the quality of life of thousands of people with mental illness in this country.

Very Best Wishes and Take Care of Your Brain!”

Dr Chris Manning, CEO Primhe
Dr Ian Walton, Chair of Trustees
www.primhe.org