8:56 pm - Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004
Haircuts and Honeysuckle
Friday night was a good night. Our little fambly went to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It was a thoroughly pleasing movie experience. The visuals were a hoot, the plot was great, it was funny and it had Angelina Jolie�s lips in it. After the movie we sat there while all the credits went up. Simon says this is unnecessary. He says the movie company did surveys, and when they found that half of one percent of movie-goers sit through the credits they quit going through the trouble of putting fun little bits at the end of the credits. I responded that anyone who has taken beginning psychology can tell you that the best way to create persistent behavior is to reward it intermittently. I have been rewarded for sitting through credits intermittently. I have a compunction to sit through the credits. I figure if nothing else, it gives the theater grunts a break � they don�t usually sweep up till everybody leaves, so they stand around and chit-chat.
Saturday I got up and collected some things for errands, then left the house by 9 to go get my hair done. I get a hair cut about once every year, so this is worth taking notice of. I had asked my boss what to do about my hair. She said to get a trim and use Product.
Product: something expensive to put in your hair that promises to make it behave in a manner completely opposite to the way nature made it grow. Product is usually sticky at sometime during the process, and may actually damage your hair, but it usually smells good, and it may do what it claims.
I asked her where to go. She said the Aveda beauty school. A haircut costs $14, so I made an appointment.
I walked in, told them I was there for a hair cut, and was offered a cup of tea or coffee. I walked around and smelled the yummy things they have in clever containers around the store. My girl shows up and takes me to her chair. I tell her I don�t want to look like Nell- �Tay eena win� � and she suggests we take a bit off the ends, layer it and frame my face a bit. Then she has me smell these little bottles. I choose a smell, she puts in on my head and massages my scalp. I�m thinking �Shit. How many times did I go to Not-So-Fantastic-Sam�s when I could get treated this nice for the same price.� Then she takes me to the sink and washes my hair. Not once, but three times with various good smelling things. I love it when they wash my hair- it's like the best physical contact you can have that doesn�t involve erogenous zones. Then we go back to her chair, where she proceeds to give me a really good haircut. Damn. Then she shows me what Product to use for what outcome. After we�re all done she offers me a complementary Make-up Touch-up. Sha. Like I wear makeup. Then she shows me around the place, showing me the Product. She showed me a brush that will straighten my hair. It�s not round. This is good- I�m beauty implement challenged and inevitably tangle my hair in all things round. I bought some straightening Product and the brush and some yummy mint drops.
I know you�re remembering the entry where I said my hair wouldn�t curl, and you�re confused. The fact is, the front of my head has straight hair, the underside of the back hangs in ringlets. The rest is somewhat in between. The effect looks like an eight-year-old who needs to brush her hair. If I apply the product, use the brush and a blow dryer, I can have hair that looks brushed. This increases my get-ready-time about forty-fold. I can�t imagine it happening often.
After this delightful occurrence I felt very fancy. I bipped into the Arcade where a boutique from Ypsi had moved to. Boy is that one awful sentence. Imagine something better.
Anyway, I feel metropolitan. I feel pretty. I feel like getting a cappicino. While I wait for it to brew I see a vase with a few flowers in it, and I ask what kind of flower is that. The girl says she doesn�t know, but it smells better than she thought a flower could smell. I knew what that flower was, so I introduce her to honeysuckle.
At this point I thought about a little goal I had for myself. I had decided to try to be friendly to people. Not creepy friendly- talk to people whether they want to talk or not- it�s just that I realized I don�t say anything at all to most of the people I come into contact with. So. I says to her �When I was a kid we used to suck the honey out of them.� And she answers! She says �I heard you could do something like that, but I don�t know how.� so I says �Do you mind? I can show you...� She says to go ahead, so I do, and then she tries it, and the other counter girl tries it, and we�re all laughing and smiling and I say goodbye and go drink my coffee in the sun.
I call Simon. I feel very different than I do on a daily basis. I feel like I am good and happy and like I�m really being who I am. I like this feeling. I liked it so much I can bask in it from here, weeks later.