Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Hair Chair



It's amazing what you can learn about a person in such a short amount of time. With each client that leaves my chair, I feel like I gained a new friend. Sure, we may not see each other outside of my salon but I definitely know them on a different level before they walk out the door.

Sitting in the chair of a hairdresser is like a (almost free) therapy session. I get to hear her complain about her last hairdresser and we swap horrible dating stories. The funny thing is that the most unexpected client can have the most in common with me.

Yesterday I had a new client to the salon that came in for a haircut. She was an older woman, in her late forties, early fifties named Karen* and lives in a small suburb outside of Austin. She wears her hair in a ponytail every single day and only wanted a trim. So I immediately ask what she does for work and why her hair is always up. She told me she is an ER nurse and has been for 16 years. I love when I talk to a nurse or someone who works in a hospital because I love hearing about the crazy stories they have. So I ask her what her crazy stories are and she thought hard about it for a minute and finally said "you would be surprised at how many men come in with objects up their butt." She just flat out told me about men sticking things up their butts for fun (or curiosity?).

My immediate reaction was to laugh and then tell her that is EXACTLY what my aunt in Plano says! For years she has always told these outrageous stories about these (stupid) men and their excuses for why a piece of fruit or a vegetable is stuck up their butt! So I ask Karen to be more specific and she told me a story about a man that came in the other week with a cucumber stuck so far up there that they had to open up his abdomen just to get it out. "What's his excuse?" I asked and it was, "I was out on my tractor naked and I fell off onto my cucumber patch."

Really? As if anyone actually thinks that cucumbers grow out of the ground vertically.

So there we had one odd thing in common with her being a nurse and her crazy stories and my aunt who is a nurse with the same stories. Karen actually has some family that lives in Plano, which is where I am from, as well.

I went on to ask her more about her personal life and if she was single/married/dating and she said she has a boyfriend. I asked what her boyfriend does and where he is from and she told me he is retired now and from Mexico. That was another thing I screamed "me too!" about (not my boy being retired, but being from Mexico).

The guy I've been seeing is from Mexico and english is his second language. I asked her if she knew any Spanish and she said that she is starting to take Rosetta Stone and that it helps here and there. I am very interested in taking a Spanish class once I get some extra money and Karen said the same thing.

To make a long story longer, I find it so interesting that someone who is 25 odd years older than I can have so much in common with me. It makes me believe that age really is just a number and that some people get too hung up on it. I can see youth in almost all people and it is inspiring to me. I can only hope that when I'm older I can still have a fun side to me no matter where I am in life.


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