What you see is not always what you get

As a teenager, I used to rinse my hair with malt vinegar after washing it. Vinegar removes the last traces of shampoo and is supposed to enrich hair colour (malt vinegar for brunettes, lemon juice for blondes – or white spirit vinegar, I guess).

On this particular day (my mother was out) I helped myself to a cup of malt vinegar and repaired to the bathroom for the hair-washing ritual.

The final vinegar rinse smelled a bit odd.

I went back to the kitchen to check the bottle. The label did indeed say ‘malt vinegar’.

My hair felt sticky.

When mum came home:
Me: Mum, please don’t buy that type of vinegar again. It smells funny.
Mum: Which vinegar, darling?
Me: (retrieving suspect, now nearly empty bottle from the pantry) This one.
Mum: Oh, no!!! That’s not vinegar, that’s the brandy I’ve been saving to put in the Christmas cake!

It took three shampoos to get the brandy out.

I think I stopped the vinegar-rinse after that.