Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Sacrifice Beauty for Cold Hard Cash?

This is the story of how I ended up with a super short new haircut...
I have had the same hairdresser and have gone to the same salon for over 15 years. The cost is reasonable for a haircut (considering my sister pays about $180 each month to get her hair done and it looks like it was attacked by a weedwacker, I consider the $40 I pay to be a great price) and I have since switched to coloring my hair at home to save money (it was $150 at the salon, only $10 at home) so I figured with a good cut I could sacrifice the salon color part because it really does look the same if I do it at home (I taught hubby how to do foils so now I get the layered color look at home!).
Anyway, hubby always goes to the local chain (cheap) haircutting place in town and until today I have flatly refused to go. I mean I can sacrifice a lot of things to save money but when it comes to my hair...um...no. With my kinky mass of hair I have had more than my share of horrible haircuts so when I found someone who could do my hair, I clung to her like she was my hair savior.
Back to the story...
Today in the bundle of advertising flyers that comes in the mail each week was a coupon for the haircutting place that hubby likes to go to. Again, he said "why don't you just try the place...it will save you money!" I guess I was feeling a bit wild and rebellious because I picked up the coupon and while I really had no intention of going to the place, it just so happened that I ended up driving by after I went to the mall. The place was nearly empty so I threw caution to the wind and went in. It isn't a salon. They don't even wash your hair first, just spray it with water to wet it down. The first girl that came up to me looked like she was tweaking on meth. No kidding. So I pointed to the other girl and said I wanted her to cut my hair. It then dawned on me that I haven't had to find someone to cut my hair in 15 years and I had no idea of how to go about doing so. Can you just look at someone and know if they can cut hair? I crossed my fingers and sat down in her chair. If nothing else, since she had kinky hair like mine, I figured she could sympathise with my hair, something that people with straight hair can't do.
She asked what I wanted. Feeling wild (again) I told her to surprise me. She spun me around so I couldn't see what she was doing but by the long clumps of hair that were dropping to the floor, I figured something major was going on. Amazingly (for a quick cut chain place) she took an inordinate amount of time on my hair. When she got done I was certainly surprised, it was much shorter than I had ever had my hair before, but it also felt very freeing, both because I was able to let go of my preconceived notions about not being able to live without the person who always cuts my hair and it was literally freeing--my head was actually lighter without all of the hair on it! The final bill was $15 including tip! Amazing.
Overall I am happy with the new look. It was pretty surprising to hubby and his friends when I came back and it may take him a while to get used to it but I really do like it.
I must have been on some kick today because I also changed the color of my hair. Hubby was surprised...again. I guess I could come home with another tattoo if I really wanted to push him over the edge but the change in my hair will suffice for today.
The moral of the story is that it really can pay to challenge the things that you think you could NEVER change. Sometimes the things that we cling to could actually be holding us back (or at least costing us more money than we need to spend). ~The End~

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