Truths: Cuts of the Day

It’s a big day for me…. I am getting my haircut. Sure, it happens nearly every 6 weeks or so, but each time it does – well, it is a big day.

I have had long hair, short hair, permed hair, bleached hair – you name it I have done it. Many of it with regret. Especially, when I look back at the pictures and think, “What the Hell?” Particularly – a few from college – where I certain my hair is made of melted gold!

I have naturally curly hair (Thanks to my dad) so just think about me with a perm? Huh?

My hair is a really an ugly version of blonde and it is getting worse every year. What used to glisten is dull – and oh, the grey that is showing up.

So, I highlight my hair – or “foil” it as they say these days. Today, even though it is winter, (It snowed last night about 2 inches. UGH!) I want my hair more blonde. No matter how old I get or how my hair changes naturally – I will forever consider myself a blonde – so when I look in the mirror – my hair better be blonde – Damn it!

But what about the cut today? I just don’t know and I have about 2 hours to figure it out. Its not like I have endless options – my hair is on the short side so I have to work with that.

Did I mention my hair looked good yesterday. Isn’t that always the way it goes? One day you wake up and look at your hair and think, “OMG, I totally need a haircut!”

So, you rush to call your stylist and beg to get in as soon as possible. And, then, BAM, the day before you are going to make drastic changes you love your hair!

I think its Murphy’s Law!

Luckily, for me, while yesterday’s hair looked great – this morning’s hair does not. Guess it was a good call to get it cut.

Even though I am still unsure about the cut, I have one thing in my favor: I have had the same stylist for a really long time.

Getting to that point was agony. I would find someone whom I liked and I would go for a while and then something would go wrong. Either the stylist would quit or move away or one even went a little crazy.

I have driven up to over an hour – one way – just to go to a stylist I liked.

But none of them ever lasted long enough for them to get used to my hair. To understand what it will and will not do and to care enough about what I really wanted.

I have that now. Heather is amazing and she understands my hair. She explains, in a kind way, when the picture of a style I bring in is never going to work for me. She knows that it takes numerous amount of thinning out my hair for me to be happy. My hair is unbelievably thick. (Thanks to my mom)

And, for the first time in my life, I can honestly tell her if I don’t like it.

That’s a big thing, isn’t it? We all tend to go into a salon with high hopes only to all too often come out in tears (after paying a lot of money). However, the tears are held back until we are in our car and going home. We never tell the stylist. We feel bad and so we suck it up and hope that when we get home and wash our own hair and style it – we can make it work.

Truthfully, unless I am getting my straightened by a stylist – I always feel like I can do a better job with my hair when I get home and re-wash it. Even though I just paid a $100 for them to do it!

I still am haunted by a time in college when I cam back home and my mom drove me to the stylist – I explained what I wanted but she took the liberty to do it her way. When she was done I looked like I was from the 80’s (it was the 90’s). My hair was “feathered” like Farrah Fawcett. I held back the tears and as I was paying – Jim walked in. He was a really good friend and we were starting to “date.” I was completely mortified! It seemed he stopped by the house and my dad told him where I was so he said he would pick me up.

When I got in his car, I couldn’t hold back any longer and started to ball my eyes out. He was so sweet and said that it looked fine… He just had to be lying!

For women a haircut day is a big day every time they go in… for men, not so much. My husband, who is somewhat bald, walks into one of the haircut chains, sits down and walks out in 10 minutes. And even though he is bald, I know this is the same scenario with men who have a full head of hair.

Men don’t buy magazines or search the internet for their new style – have you ever seen a magazine at the newsstand with haircuts for men? No, they just walk in and walk out as fast as it takes us to write the whooping check for the haircut we don’t like.

Another interesting dynamic of us getting our hair done is the intimate conversations we have with our stylists. Sometimes, I feel like Heather knows more about my life than my closest friends. I think stylists are like bartenders – we somehow melt in their hands and are entranced as they cut and foil our hair making us spill our darkest secrets.

The truth is: when I get my hair done – I am there for over 3 hours. Yep, 3 hours. It is literally like a ½ day hiatus from the world. So, how could I sit in a chair for that long and not end up chatting about my entire life?

So, in two hours my hiatus will begin and hopefully it will end in elation and not tears.