Fun at the salon

Thursday, 3:24 pm

By Kate

Sep

06

2007

I went to have my hair cut and prettified early this afternoon. My regular stylist is on vacation for the rest of the month and I didn’t want to wait until October, so one of her associates took me on.

The young woman who attended to me today didn’t know me from a stick of wood. To her, I was a blank slate. She tried, oh she tried, to convince me that I needed layers. Oh, I don’t think so. Been there, done that. Disaster.

My wants and needs are quite simple. Shoulder cut, all one length. With a center part because my hair insists.

But this young lady was having a ball with my hair today. With my back to the mirror, I couldn’t tell exactly what she was doing, but there was a lot of moussing and spritzing and, oh my god, teasing going on. I trembled to see what the final product would be.

When she turned me around to the mirror (with pride lighting up her eyes), I managed a heartfelt, “Oh wow!” I think that she interpreted that as an “Oh, wow!” of delight. I smiled, thinking..."okay, the basic cut is there. I can undo this.”

She parted my hair on the side, teased the heck out of underlying strands to mimic layering, flipped the ends out and hair sprayed them solid, and then glued the rest to my head with more hair spray. I walked out looking like a character from a 1960s sitcom. Remember Laura Petrie’s do? Hair style is as much about personality as actual style. I was a split personality when I got into my car.

It took me a while to work out the teasing. And then I soaked my head in the sink. I’m back to normal and I look like myself again.