A Transformation

As a teenager, I used to wait about 2-3 months before having my hair cut. A cut was out of the question during semesters so it was usually cut during the usual breaks (Christmas, Spring, Summer and before school started). Often during these times my hair grew thick - heavy on top and at the back, as well as long at the back, front & sides.

When I was 20, I moved into a small town. I knew nobody except the people I was slowly starting to meet through the job I had just started. My hair had grown out yet again - its usual thickness in the back & top and halfway down my neck at the back - about 4 to 4 1/2" long. I was in desperate need of a haircut but had no idea where to start. By accident (or was it?), one woman I met introduced me to her girlfriend - a woman who owned her own shop and personally specialized in men's haircuts. I was a little bit nervous but a week later I got pushed into it, and made an appointment with her.

Finally the day of reckoning came and I nervously walked into the shop. Donna recognized me right away & called me back to her sink. As she put a towel into my collar and started washing my hair she asked 'how long has it been since your last haircut?' I told her about 2 1/2 months - she giggled & said 'a little overdue - sounds like we've got some catching up to do'.

She mopped my hair till it was just damp, and led me over to her chair. Once I was in her chair she pulled the towel out from my collar, draped me with a black-and-white cape, and then pulled a tissue from a box and fastened it around my neck. Then she secured the cape snugly at the back of my neck and started combing out my hair.

'Wow, you definitely need a haircut,' she told me. 'How do you like it?' 'Well, I have to look professional,' I answered. 'Hmmm...how about I take about an inch off your back & sides, half an inch off the top...and maybe thin it out a little, it's really thick.' 'Sounds good,' I said, a little up tight. I always felt kind of helpless when in the barber's or stylist's chair; this time was no different.

By now she had combed my hair out so it almost touched the back of the cape, hung down below my earlobes and my bangs were hanging down in front of my eyes. I almost always got tears when that happened, not because I was upset but because of the hair ends being too close to my eyes. It was starting to tickle my face, too.

When she started cutting the sides I could see in the mirror great big pieces of wet, cut strawberry blonde hair falling on the cape, sometimes sliding down to the floor. I could feel her scissors going down the back of my ears and felt the cut hair tickle my neck as it fell.

She started cutting the back next - still keeping me facing the mirror - and now the hair really started to fall. Big chunks of cut hair were falling everywhere and my head was starting to feel a bit lighter. Finally she started to cut the front and in a few seconds my long, narrow bangs were gone, falling on the cape. 'That's way better,' I said.

'You already look better...and I'm not anywhere near finished yet,' she teased as she started working with her scissors across the top. Every few seconds bits & pieces of cut hair would drop in front of my face. After a few minutes of this she started combing the hair into a manageable style. I looked in the mirror and saw somebody way different than when I'd sat down in the chair; most of my long, thick locks were on the cape or the floor.

She dried my hair with her blow dryer, brushed it out, and then held up a mirror to the back of my head. 'How's that look?' she asked. 'You want it a little thinner on top?' 'Sure,' I said. 'It still feels a bit heavy.'

Then she picked up a pair of different-looking shears - a set with teeth along the blades - and I watched as she started snipping hair from the top of my head. She shook soft pieces of hair from her scissors as she finished, then I heard the familiar bzzz of the razor as she applied it to my sides and back.

Again she held up a mirror to the back of my head. What a difference! My head felt so much better - so much lighter - minus the thick hairs scratching at my neck, and it was cut in a block across the bottom and thinned out at the back, and still a good amount on top. I could actually see my face and forehead again! She put some gel in, then mussed it up a little in the front, to give it a stylish look. Then she dusted off my neck & face, unfastened the cape, pulled the tissue out and removed the cape.

I paid Donna for her services and tipped her generously. As I walked out of the shop she called to me, 'You make sure you come back in 7 weeks, or I'll cut it even shorter next time!' I did come back in 7 weeks...and kept going back for a year and a half. But I never forgot that first haircut by her...a transformation from someone ugly to someone who looked young again!