Will the {Hair} Cycle Be Unbroken?
She stands at the sleek salon counter, pen poised over her slim pocketbook calendar, awaiting the confirmation of a date six weeks out from the cheery receptionist perusing the salon calendar. The happy hum of a well-organized life plays as background music as the bouncy haired client and the chirpy receptionist banter back and forth. A date is set, the calendar is put back in it's proper resting place inside the woman's orderly purse and out she goes, ready to face life with healthy hair.
That woman is me.
In my dreams.
****
July 2, 2011, 2:30PM, EST:
Ninety-nine days out since she last darkened the doorway of her favorite (& longtime) salon, the woman feels several sweat tributaries running down her neck, meeting at the nape and pouring down her back as a river. She sighs, and whips her hair back into a ponytail. Her determination not to give into an easy-care "mom" hair style is being threatened by her growing distaste for resembling a straggly fifteen year old.
She is already ruing the fact that, yet again, she impulsively 'trimmed' her bangs over the bathroom sink in desperation because she could not imagine a salon appointment in her near future. The result left her looking like a young Dorothy "Hammill" in the front and an overgrown "Aniston" in the back. It didn't help when she made the discovery of a picture one of her children must have taken unbeknownst to her one morning while sitting in the living room floor in her K-Mart nightgown calming the children crawling all over her. She looked like the dull, limp and lifeless housewife she so often felt like. Yet again, the winds of change started to stir (quite forcefully) and the course of action taken was completely predictable in it's spontaneity.
This woman is me.
Outside my dreams.
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011, 9AM, EST:
**RiNg! RiNg! RiNg!**
{Perky, cheerful voice}: "Hello! Oasis Salon, How may I help you?"
{Apologetic, hesitant, pitifully hopeful voice}: "Hello...I am calling to see, if by any far-off, remote, nearly impossible chance Tami would have any openings later on today? I know...it's so last minute! I totally understand if she does not. Just a cut. She doesn't even have to dry it if she doesn't have time {desperation setting in at this point}."
As fate, divine intervention (i hesitate making last-minute salon appointments spiritual) or whatever you call it would have it, the most talented stylist in the world had availability the very hour (4 o'clock) this frazzled, straggly pony-tailed woman was able to escape her domestic responsibilities! After one-hundred and three days since the last time my locks were touched by a sharp shears, it was a huge bolster of hope that, indeed, I might look like a WOMAN again!!
***
July 6th, 2011 (same day), 12PM, EST:
My face is aglow by the murky light of the Google Search in my darkened desk nook. 
I have gone on many a similar, winding searches in the past, each time typing in words like "Medium length hairstyles for long faces"....."Stacked bob hairstyle with bangs"...."Best hair cut for volume"..."Celebrity hairstyles for oval face shape"...but never finding a face that looks like mine and the style I have envisioned in my mind. I consider that perhaps it is because the style I envision is from two decades ago, and the stars of "Dallas" aren't exactly found in the top Google hair style search results.
Wistfully gazing at the faces of Catherine Zeta Jones, Heidi Klum and Faith Hill, I wonder if it is not just their hair style, but their check bones, perfect teeth and body I want my hair stylist to give me. Pretty tall orders for even the most talented of stylists, not to mention a very discontented and ungrateful perspective. I toss out the envy, print out a picture of Heidi Klum (decided upon after consulting two of my close, honest friends) and decide to be happy with whatever 'boost' I get from a new hair style. Besides, the thought of getting my hair washed by someone else is one of my favorite things! How could I not look forward?
July 6th, 2011, 3:45PM, EST:
I head to my favorite salon, a few moments behind (like always) and am greeted by my stylist, who has become an admired friend. After catching up for a few moments, I hand her the piece of paper she has come to expect. I think her hand might have been extended in wait for it. No doubt she wonders which celebrity it will be this time. I love her even more as she exclaims that this is a great match for my hair texture and face shape. It is amazing what a good friend/stylist will do for the spirit!
I could feel the deadness leaving the ends of my hair and almost heard the cheers coming from my follicles, celebrating the health that was being restored to their tired, worn out roots. I had decided to save money (sorry, Tami!), and at the prompting of my "beauty consultant/close friend" (I look forward to introducing her to you in an upcoming post you will NOT want to miss!), had a 25 minute date with Clairol's "Nice~n~Easy", Shade 106A. She swears by it (She, too, is finding grays at an alarming rate), and every review she has ever read testifies to it's expensive looking results that won't put you out more than seven dollars.
July 7th, 2011, 10AM, EST:
I woke up looking nothing like Heidi Klum
****
This hair cycle has been going on for so many years, I don't know how I would act if I actually got my act together! Speaking of getting my act together, I decided to take a small hiatus from my personal Facebook page. It has become too much a part of my daily life, and I am reclaiming that time to remind myself what life was like before this little social venue turned into a time-sucking monster. Instead, I have a simple little Facebook page for this blog, so that whomever of my dear friends wants to see when this blog is updated can do so on there (i might also share an occasional recipe that is a new favorite, an activity that is actually entertaining my children, etc). Feel free to like it yourself. Or not.
I just appreciate you taking the time to drop by and read about the pitiful inability of a full-grown woman to make hair appointments!
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