I just used half a bottle of body lotion on my hair. By mistake. Which, by the way, is a bitch to wash out. After several hours on an airplane, I just wanted a shower. So rather than unpack, I just grabbed two bottles off the bathroom counter in my hotel room and jumped in the shower. Only after being puzzled as to why I couldn’t seem to rinse my hair clean did I look at the label. Crap.

That’s the first time I’ve made that particular bone-headed move, but I’ve done a couple of other things like that. And it made me realize that I make assumptions about products for a variety of reason.

I assumed that the shampoo would be quasi transparent and the conditioner would be pearl-ish and that the conditioner would be placed adjacent to the shampoo in my hotel room. It wasn’t.

I never read my shampoo or conditioner label at home, I just know by the bottle and packaging (and where I keep them), which is which. I don’t have to read a label at the store, I know what I want to buy and I just grab.

I make assumptions based on package or label color. I once meant to buy Excedrin PM and got home with Tylenol PM instead. The look alike.

I assume that the hottest salsas will use more red in their package design and milder ones will use more green. I gravitate to the red packages.

Just recently I noticed that the half and half I buy had a fat free notation on the package. I’ve been buying the product forever, but I didn’t know that. And when I thought about it, I was puzzled. How can half and half be fat free? That makes no sense to me. And when I  googled it to find out, I was determined to not buy that product anymore.

I’m a voracious reader. I consume books. But obviously I don’t read labels. And I don’t think I’m alone.

But from now on, I’ll read the labels of those little bottles in my hotel room before I use them. The upside is that my hair is really clean and pretty soft.