Haircuts

My friend’s son used to cut my hair. If I went to where he worked in a Newport Beach salon, he would have to charge me $125., but since he cut my hair in his kitchen—I saved a $100. It was great. The only downside was he liked to chat and it always took him more than 90 minutes to cut my (very thin) hair.

We would talk about the Gilmore Girls (we were both fans) religion (I’m religious, he is not) and music (despite the more than 25 year age gap, we had similar musical tastes.) He always had some new artist or band he would want me to listen to.

I was sad when he moved away and my hair suffered. I tried different salons . Some hairstylists were chatty, some were not. All were extremely expensive. None of them listened to music and by this time Rory had left Stars Hollow to become a journalist and Lorelai had finally committed to Luke.

It’s been years since my friend’s son moved away and I haven’t replaced him. I now go to the beauty school and a different student does my hair at each appointment. I have yet to be disappointed and it’s so cheap, even cheaper than my friend’s kitchen, if I’m disappointed I can return to a more upscale salon, let them fix the damage, and I would still be financially ahead.

But not everything is about finances and contrary to popular opinion, the state of my hair isn’t very important, either. I like the beauty school. There’s a ton of people there, the students have really high aspirations of working for Hollywood and magazines, there’s usually a lot of drama and often several people—students and instructors— fuss over my hair. I have yet to leave without feeling like a million bucks.

But it’s not my friend’s kitchen. With my friend’s son I had an emotional investment. We liked each other’s company. To the students at the beauty, I’m just another head of hair.

Here’s my point: There are many ways of doing the same things and achieving the same results. We can build relationships during the process…or not. Either way, my hair still gets cut.