Stylist with Scissors

I absolutely love getting my hair cut. The whole experience feels very luxurious whether I'm in a chain in a strip mall being washed out by florescent lights or sipping herbal tea in a leather chair. I am a penny-pinching miser so I usually go to the cheaper places for trims but I splurge if I'm making any major changes. No matter what, I always get my hair washed partly because I think the idea of cutting dirty hair is gross but also because I love the feeling and smells of new products and a head massage.

Friday I was past the raggedy kind-of-pulling-it-off stage and into the obvious split ends territory so I drove to the chain I have found in Wilmington. My favorite stylist wasn't there and I was just getting a trim so I just put my name down for anyone. The first thing I noticed when she called my name was her long acryllic nails. Granted I've never had them myself but it just doesn't seem that clean to me. She started washing my hair and the water was freezing. I live in the land of air conditioning on high all the time, so it was already chilly. I asked her to warm the water up and she sighed and said she would but she doesn't like the water too hot. !!!! I should have taken it as a sign and just left but I had driven all this way and I was getting a hair cut dammit!

After my lukewarm washing she set me up in the chair. Except for the water temperature exchange we hadn't said anything and she started combing and parting my hair without asking me (still) what I wanted her to do. If I'm getting a trim I honestly don't really care what a stylist does and I appreciate suggestions but I think it's a good idea to get SOME idea of what we're doing to my hair. Finally I just volunteered I wanted a trim with my bangs evened up and the longer layers trimmed. She acted like I asked for some crazy new hairstyle and there was about 5 minutes of her questioning exactly what I wanted her to do. Maybe she was new or unexperienced but really? was it that difficult.

Still in absolute silence she started cutting ONE HAIR AT A TIME. It was the slowest trim I've ever gotten. At one point she piped up and asked if I had highlights. I said no and her response was "Hmm". That it, just hmm. So for the rest of the intermidable time I sat there trying to figure out this cryptic comment. Did I need highlights? Is my hair damaged like I color it? Am I going gray?

Finally she was done drying my hair and I basically ran for the door. And I don't even really like the cut. So no more random women at the cheap places. I'll stick with the people I know who ask about my hair, chat during the 15 minute trim and allow me more than a trickle of hot water. Lesson learned.