Does violating hairdresser monogamy make you feel guilty? Whenever I switch, I feel like I’m plunging a pair of scissors into the heart of my “last true love.” Yet there I am, on to a new one.
I’m looking to shake things up and in that quest switching stylists can feel like marital infidelity. Long-time customers are often long on dissatisfaction, but still they say, “How can I leave? He/she would be so hurt.” Make an appointment with somebody new and then pace around the room fretting,” To stray or not to stray?”
The first time I slunk into a new salon, I envisioned Eric’s sad, brown puppy eyes. He was my former hairdresser and just like that, I traded him for Julie. At what point did my vow, ‘I’ll never go to anyone else!’ mean nothing?
It feels like adultery, and I’ve considered karmic punishment. Would this new person give me bad bangs? Would bold highlights quickly fade to brassy? My betrayal would serve me right.
But then I met Julie, her face framed in sassy tendrils, and somehow I sensed she understood me. I shared my secret cravings: an easy-care hairdo, playful-looking but professionally appropriate. Can you make me feel young again?
“Sure, I can do that.”
Suddenly, leaving Eric was the right thing to do.
During the sensuality of my shampoo, I imagined Eric’s face, gloomy and reproving. As Julie massaged the base of my neck (confirming the rightness of the moment) I wondered just when I first wanted to experiment with someone new.
Back then Eric and I were in a hair groove. He couldn’t do anything wrong. Whenever he laid a hand on my head, magic! Locks and layers fell beautifully into place. The first time he took me through highlights? Fireworks!
High on those early haircuts, I told myself, “I will never leave this man.”
But then, over time, disappointment – my haircuts didn’t have the crackle and pop of our early days. I’d wanted to try new things, but Eric delivered the same old, same old. Was he not listening to me? Am I being taken for granted? Sure, the haircuts are okay but I’m traveling downtown for something special.
But now under Julie’s touch, my hair springs back to life. Snip, snip and voila! My eyes shine with hairdo happiness. I’m ready to pledge lifelong devotion to someone new.
When Julie pops the question, “So do you like it?”
With all the fervor of forever, I say, “I do!”
Is hairdresser monogamy possible? Do you secretly wonder if it’s time to leave?
So funny and so true – for hairdressers and doctors and so many others. Back in the day (I won’t tell you which day – I can’t remember) I had that same loyalty factor for the only radio station in Chicago that played music I liked as a teenager. Then one day, another radio station, playing even more of the music I liked, with less commercials, appeared. Guilt. How could I betray my former favorite radio station? I felt like such a traitor.
Boy, you nailed it. I left my hairdresser once about a decade ago. That was the time someone new made me into a bad looking blond. Of course, I came slinking back home for repairs and haven’t dared leave again since.
Now I wish I had hair. Again.
Funny—I always wondered about this. I can never leave my hairdresser because she is one of my best friends. She has been doing my hair since I was in college. She usually does a great job but every now and then there is a bomb. The good thing is that since we are so close, I can tell her the truth if it sucks and she is always happy to repair it.
Singing: “Breaking up is hard to do … .” But sometimes you just have to cut the ponytail holders that bind and go on to a new relationship.
That is the coolest piece of hair I have ever seen and I have a beard!