To borrow a phrase from the inimitable Jen at MUBAR, today we swim in the shallow end of the pool.
I’m going to get my hair cut today. As I mentioned before, I spend a lot of money on haircuts. Well, it seems like a lot of money to me. Enough that I try to remain obtusely vague when the costs of haircuts comes up in conversation with Beloved. Ignorance is bliss.
Haircut day is full of mixed emotions. I am excited, because today maybe I’ll turn out like one of those “after” girls in the makeover shows. Maybe today is the day I get the haircut that looks just as good two weeks from Wednesday as it does when I’m flouncing out of the salon, preening at my reflection in the chrome on the escalator. A good haircut can succeed where a month of Weight Watchers has failed.
Haircut day is also full of anxiety. What if he gives me a really bad haircut? What if he cuts it too short? Has my hair really been bothering me enough lately to get it cut? What if it’s worse after than before? What if his wife didn’t put out last night and he burnt his toast this morning and someone was parked in his spot and he’s feeling particularly cranky and takes out his frustrations on my hapless hair?
Okay, so I have hair issues. And probably social issues, too. A blog for another day?
Actually, I really like the guy who cuts my hair. He’s been doing it for seven or eight years (did I mention I’m not good with change?) and when I first started seeing him he reminded me a lot of Rob Lowe. We’ve both aged since then, but we continue to flirt affectionately, and going for a haircut is as much about having my ego stroked as getting my locks trimmed.
He’s been my arm’s length confidante on just about everything over the better part of the last decade: my wedding to Beloved, trying to conceive and infertility treatments, the arrivals of Tristan and Simon, and my crawl up the corporate ladder, not to mention the endless minutia of my daily life. He probably knows about as much about me as you do, if you drop by often enough. Certainly he knows me as well as if not better than a lot of my friends. Why is it we talk so sincerely and candidly to hair stylists, anyway?
Finding a stylist I trusted took me a long time. For the most part, I am completely intimidated by male stylists. But I find that women stylists tend to have their own ideas about how your hair should/could look and style to their ideal rather than your request.
Granted, I am not an easy customer, and usually walk in and say something to James like, “I think maybe it’s time to cut it shorter. I’d like it more, you know, flippy. Kind of ‘suburban MILF in the boardroom chic meets nature girl.’ But not too short. Shorter, but not shorter. You know, just fix it. ” And bless his heart, he does.
Do you agonize over hair? Are you brave, trying new colours and styles on a seasonal basis? Do you buy high-end salon products? (It is a running debate between James and I – he continues to be horrified that I buy drug store shampoo, even though I assure him I buy the ‘expensive’ stuff at $6 a bottle. Did I mention I’m mostly cheap, too?) Or are you one of those people who cuts your own hair once every six months? (I am actually saying that with admiration. I could save a fortune if I could wean myself off downtown salon prices!)
Or are you muttering to yourself about the 90 seconds of your life you just wasted reading this drivel when you could have been filing your toe nails or taking a leak?
I reached a point in my life where I decided to start cutting my own hair. No, no, no – no flowbee for this cowboy…and no weedwacker either. I bought a hair clipper. Because I keep my hair fair brushcut-like these days, it’s saved me a bundle.
Perhaps we should be trying to solve the eternal question of why do haircuts for men cost at least a third of what women pay? Do women have special-needs hair? Are men just too cheap to be suckered in by higher salon/barber prices? I guess if I’m cutting my own hair, I must fall into the latter category.
I am on the budget plan–I found one of the Fantastic Butchers with the only talented person there–and I drive for her, but the haircuts are cheap. I change my hair with my moods–typically if I am sad or it is my birthday. My current bend is as short as possible without looking like the girl from Northern Exposure. Not that I could anyway. With short hair, it must be cut more often. But at this price, who cares? Good luck with your flippy or short or whatever ‘do you do decide to do!
Um, have you read my blog?
ahhh haircuts…Do you know I’m a closet hairstyle maginzine junkie? I but these mags and look at the styles and say THAT”S WHAT I WANT! BUT what I really want is the whole freakin’ package! I want to be thiner and blonder and have bigger eyes and ni nicer skin and have those high lights and look like you said a MILF! BUT i go in talk to my hair dresser (Who is cheap) and end up walking out looking but not looking like the models inthe mags.
Can someone wave a magic wand and make me gorgeous….PLEASE????
another good blog Dani my girl!
We do lead strangely similar lives. I got my hair cut today too – by a stylist much like yours – but I had to get color, because I’m getting gray. 🙂 BTW, I like the shallow end of the pool, it is so fun here.
My burning question….why oh why does my hair always turn out perfect the morning, I’ve scheduled my haircut for? Why?
LOL! I don’t mind paying good money for a haircut as long as it is done right. I only cut it every 6 months now as lately the hairdressers I have had mistake the “please trim 1 inch off lengnth” to “please chop 6 inches or more!”. It usually takes me that long to get my legnth back and extra for a trim :(. I also buy the salon shampoo, but I buy in bulk twice a year. Love it!
Anna
I have MAJOR salon-phobia. I hate getting my hair cut. In fact, when I got it cut 2 weeks ago, it had been, ummm, 12 months since my previous cut. Really. And boy did it show.
I hope you left the salon delighted. I am now a high maintenance hair woman because I love it when people think my highlights are the real deal and I am Scandanavian (My grandmother was Swedish so, really, I kind of am!). I always voww that I will not do the ponytail/bun thing and will get a wash and wear style. But in the end, I end up ponytailing it except for the two days after my cut when I wear the fantastic style they have given me which cannot be replicated at home.
i just wanna know where this hair salon is. im new in ottawa and im loooking for a good hair stylist. I have crazy curly hair and i cant find a way to make it look good! i think a good hair cut should do the trick. thanx.