The "Hair" Affair

My daughter has the thickest head of curly hair that I have ever seen . I think it is beautiful and she absolutely cannot stand it.

I took her a woman who is a customer of mine at the restaurant where I work. She owns six Great Clips around the south side of Atlanta. She was so sweet to Massey, raving about how gorgeous her hair was and made some really good suggestions. She thinned out her hair and gave her cute sassy layers and sent us home with all the right styling products to make her hair look great. On top of that, she gave me about a 50% discount.(made me wonder if she reads my blog)??!!

Anyway, while she was cutting Massey's hair, we were all chatting and I told Brenda (Let's call the hairdresser that) about a close call I had at another Great Clips...one that she doesn't own.

I went to have my oil changed in my car one day and walked across the highway to a strip mall that had a Great Clips in it. When I walked in the door I was greeted with "The waits over an hour"! It was like they WANTED me to leave. I smiled politely and said "I have all the time in the world".

I squeezed into a small seat left, the place was crawling with kids and picked up a magazine.

The manager had three young girls with her, it was obvious they were new hires...she was showing them all around the salon pointing out hair products, took them up front and showed them how to log in on the computer and how to ring up on the register, told them how the operations were run and took them into the back for a backroom tour as well. None of the girls looked over 21.

After my third magazine the entourage came back out front to an even MORE packed waiting room and the manager said, glancing around at the growing mob of moms and kids and said cheerily "Okay, ready to cut some hair"? One girl almost shouted "YES"...fumbled around on the keyboard of the computer and called out my name. I think that is when I started to sweat.

I was too embarrassed to ask for a more senior hair cutter, so I took my chances and stood up.

She led me to a chair, pulled out her huge hand bag, got out a framed picture of her and her sweetie and propped it up in one corner of her little area, reached back in her bag and got out a framed certificate and put it on the other corner and fumbled around in her bag looking for her scissors. She couldn't find them and told me "I'll be RIGHT back". I should have gotten up and ran right then.

But she was back in a flash. She asked me what I wanted done, so I gave what I thought would be my safest answer and told her I just wanted a 1/2 inch trim. She pulled my hair between her fingers and said "about an inch then"? Heck, my hair is only two inches long to begin with! I said nicely, "NO, just a half an inch...just a slight trim".

She told me she had gotten her license last week and I was her first customer (victim is more like it).

I had my fingers crossed under the cover she had draped over me and silently prayed. Actually she didn't do too badly. She left the hair on the crown of my head a little too long and it kind of resembled a lowland gorilla, but I decided not to mention it.

Hey! At least I got my oil changed too.

My sister had a similar experience at a new salon. She had never been there, having just moved to the area and the young receptionist asked who she would like to cut her hair? My sister said "I guess anybody" and the perky receptionist chirped out "I'll cut it"!!
My sister said the girl kept picking up her hair and saying "OK" and then would start over and say "alright, let me start again". On the third time she picked up a piece of my sister's hair, she remarked "here we go" and with the first snip cut into the skin between her thumb and forefinger. My sister said blood began pouring out of the cut and down the girl's hand. She grabbed a towel and said she would be right back.

My sister said she just sat there in her chair, and sat and sat and sat. Her hair dried out from where they had wet it and finally the girl cutting hair next to her said "Maybe I should go check on her".

The girl finally returned with a huge bandage wrapped around her hand and picked up the weapon, I mean scissors and began again with "Now where were we"? My sister followed the same path I chose and said "Just a slight trim will be fine".

As I told these stories to Massey's hair stylist, we were all cracking up and Brenda said "Well someone should have stepped in and taken over right away or at least taken her to the Emergency Room". I think I would agree.

When you have hair as short as mine and my sister's...you have to be careful, our hairstyles don't leave much room for fixing mistakes.

Massey came out looking lovely though and thanks to my nice friend's discount, I came out smelling like a Rose!

Til next time...COTTON