I’m Going Into Hiding ‘Cause I Talked To My Hairdresser

Lately things have been going pretty good. Of course they would, we haven’t been up to anything too exciting. Mostly we’ve been hanging around the house, minding our own business and doing the odd minor household renovation or clean-up. Nothing too much that we can ruin and in the end you feel glad you finally struck it off of that old “To Do” list.

 Tuesday afternoon Gail and Bonnie dropped by for an hour or two and we had a great chit chat. We hadn’t seen Bonnie since Christmas and she’s looking so much better after her horrendous medical affair. We were also anxious to show them our newly decorated dining room. Not much, but Nat and I were proud of what we had accomplished. The four of us had a laugh or two reminiscing about a few things in our past. It’s confirmed now, we’re all going through the same stages as our parents – remembering the past and not looking toward the future. There ain’t much in our future I think we really want to know about!!

 Later that evening while watching the local CHCH News (and after I had gone to bed), Nat came in to tell me that there was a story about 4 or 5 Banks in Fort Ere having been “compromised”. Not quite sure how to explain the whole thing, but if you had shopped at one of the stores in the area – WalMart, Sobeys, etc. you may have had some money taken from your account. One man had lost $500.00 while another woman said she only lost $150.00. Our Banks will be reimbursing each customer, and in the meantime recorded messages were sent out to those customers that did, in fact, have their accounts compromised and they were advised to go to their bank branch and either replace their debit card or change the pin number. I told Nat that we’ll have to check things out in the morning.

 The morning arrived and after 20 minutes on the treadmill (I’ve started a new routine!!), I went to my usual hair appointment. I’m never that long as this was an “in-between” visit. As I arrived, my gal, Jennifer, was texting and it looked like she was having a quiet day. She runs a little one-woman business but has another gal come in now and again, but only when needed. After washing my hair and getting settled in the chair, Jennifer began to ask me a few questions about death. After initially asking how things were going, I should have walked out the door right then and there, when she replied “Well, I’m a little anxious today”. I soon learned that she had an aunt (aged 51) dying of lung cancer (Stage 4) and as the cancer had advanced too far there was nothing more they could do. The Aunt had asked Jennifer if she could come by this afternoon and do her hair to make her feel better. Jennifer is a young and hip kind of gal, but has never been exposed to anyone dying so, naturally, she was apprehensive, anxious and bit unnerved about the whole thing. Assuming I was the older, wiser woman in the room – it was only the two of us – she started to quiz me about what I’ve experienced in that department. I’ve only been through the usual experiences of watching my parents die (stroke and breast cancer). Her father had told her that this was life, that she was probably going to experience more and she should just be herself and at least make her Aunt feel as good as she can, despite the circumstances. I told her, her dad was right.

 Whenever I go to see Jennifer for my hair, it’s usually the same request – shave the back neck from the top of the ears down, leave the top of the head the same length and only trim the top a smidgen. I suppose today, just wasn’t going to be “the usual”. As Jennifer kept talking she kept cutting!! All of her snipping and cutting motions seemed to be the same as before, but for some reason she was showing her anxiety and I wasn’t aware of things until I returned home. Once she started to trim my bangs (to my eyebrows) everything seemed to be looking the same, but for some reason she returned to the front of my head again and began to trim just a bit more. She then proceeded to the back of my neck area again and starting snipping just a bit more. I’m now thinking, “Okay, it’s too late, but I can still work with this”.

 I paid for my cut, re-assured Jennifer that she’ll be okay seeing her Aunt and to keep upbeat about things. Returning home, my usual routine is to pull out the curling iron and begin to curl my freshly cut hair. When I looked at the back of my head I wanted to scream!!!!! She not only shaved the back, she practically made me bald. Plus, not only was the back cut to the almost-bald stage but halfway up, there was a bit more hair left but in a V-shape!! It looks like Edward Scissorhands had a hand in the whole thing! Good God, what am I going to do now!! When I came home initially and told Nat I didn’t think I liked what she had done, and he replied “Well, it is a bit shorter in the back”, I should have know then. Nat only comments when things are really bad!!! EGAD, I had no idea how short until I looked!!

 I proceeded to curl my hair and do what I could, but this time it’s beyond help. The top is too short to use my curling iron (I have very thin hair), the back couldn’t be curled at all and don’t even get me going on what bangs are left!! Once I managed to curl what I could I then grabbed for the hair gel to see if I could at least make it stick up. Hell, even that was useless!!

 After my screams of horror and my loving husband trying to re-assure me that from the front it looked “okay”, I was still apprehensive, but we still drove down to the Bank to resolve the compromising of my debit card. God bless men, they really don’t get it, do they?? I wanted to put my head in the hood of my coat when I entered through the bank doors, but I put on a good face and got the matter resolved. The bank would issue me a new debit card and I could keep my old pin number. At least nothing was taken from our account so we were lucky and the Bank was good about this whole affair.

 This afternoon Nat and I finished our day, with Nat installing new closet doors (replacing the mirrored ones) while I continued hidden in the office uploading our CD’s into iTunes. A boring but at least harmless job.

 If any family member is reading this blog, please be informed that I won’t be seeing you until my head has returned to normal. Yes, for some of you that may never happen, but at least I’m re-assured my hair will grow back, and for me that may take several weeks. Looking on the good side, I won’t have to see poor Jennifer for some time now and give her time to recoup from her own problems. She did tell me that her boyfriend was taking her up north to their cottage for a week of relaxation. I can only hope the cold northern air will clear her head and she’ll return to her normal self!!!