Haircut

The woman who's done my hair for years went "south" on me recently. She didn't return phone calls and texts for days, then when she did, she told me to give her more "lead" time when requesting an appointment. After two separate go-arounds of this nature, I decided it was time to move on.

This all happened several months ago. At first, even though my hair was getting longer and longer, I was OK. It was summer, long is OK. But, in the last couple of weeks it started to get downright "witchy" looking, just in time for Halloween.

I asked around and settled on a new hair stylist. I called and made the appointment with plenty of lead time just so I wouldn't start off on the wrong foot. It only hit me this morning that today is the day for the new salon, a place I've never seen before.

Be brave, be calm, I repeated over and over to myself.

I tend to get in a rut, going to the same people, who know what to do, so I don't have to work very hard to define what I need.

I arrived and met a nice woman, about my age. Good start. She's been at the same place for 33 years she told me. Another good piece of news. I started to relax a bit.

We discussed my hair type, what I need. It has to be able to fit into a pony tail for two reasons. One, I work out and need it off my face and two (I didn't tell her this one) is that if the cut is really awful I'll wear it in a pony tail until I can find someone to fix it.

The cutting started and it seemed that a lot more hair was being chopped off than I had expected. Pieces of hair were flying everywhere. I felt my lip start to quiver. We talked a bit but she was intently cutting away. As I saw it completed but wet I was very unsure about the finished product. It didn't look at all right, not like me at all. Lip continues to quiver and now my left eye is twitching. Be brave, be calm....

She dried my hair, while I tried not to look too much. When finished, she handed me a mirror and spun me around. I looked and was astonished. It looks great, better than the old place. I paid, gave her a compliment and made another appointment (with plenty of lead time).