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Monday, April 07, 2008

New

I’ve not been too shy to neglect to tell all of you about my adventures with my hair. In the recent past, you may remember reading about my most expensive cut ever. Which also happened to be my worst. Blah. To refresh your memory it was the one where, upon my return, Brian noticed how incredibly uneven it was and was then forced to fix it for me. The man can’t cut out a snowflake and yet I let him fix my hair. Yes. It was that bad. Which wasn’t a huge surprise to me given that my “stylist” spent more time chasing the fly with his hairdryer or pointing out rudely that I needed a pedicure than he did actually cutting my hair. Bad experience behind me, I was ready for a change.

Saturday morning we traveled the 20 minutes to Sully and found the salon. I liked both the establishment and the owner immediately. Allison was so nice and welcoming and made me feel instantly comfortable. Her salon was not the type of place with wild neon lights around the ceiling, loud techno music blaring, walls and walls of “product” everywhere you turn, pictures of impossibly gorgeous people hanging on the wall all around you. Nope. Not here. It was simple, but comfortable. No pictures of impossibly gorgeous people - just adorable pictures of her kids. Casting Crowns, Jars of Clay and Point of Grace played in the background. One large window let in the gorgeous spring sunshine. I sat in the single chair and breathed a sigh of relief.

She asked all the perfect questions and made all the perfect suggestions. We were most definitely on the same page. As we chatted we talked about how horrendously expensive it was getting to get a simple haircut and a highlight. I know of people who spend well over $100 to get theirs done. And I was almost ready to say, “Well, I guess I’ll never look good because I refuse to spend that kind of money on my hair!” And as I heard her say, “I would NEVER pay that much for a haircut!” every ounce of uncertainty left me. Her next words could have been, “Hey, I think you should dye your hair black! That would be awesome!” and I probably would have said, “Yeah, okay, sounds good.” I was that comfortable. Clearly, she understood me. But she didn’t want to dye my hair black. Her ideas and suggestions were exactly, EXACTLY, what I had in mind before I even had a chance to utter them.

When it was done, I sat in the chair, looking back at a reflection I didn’t think I would ever see. People, I loved it. I. LOVED. IT. The color was perfect. The cut was exactly what I had pictured. The style was very much me. And it actually made me look good - like better than I thought I could look. I’m not saying all this out of pride, even though it probably sounds like it. But I say it to tell you that I am so genuinely pleased I don’t think I will ever let another person cut or color my hair.

If she charged over $100, I just might have paid it and not felt guilty about it. But no. Her price was so reasonable that it was almost unreasonable. I’m pretty sure I nearly skipped down the street to the car. I repeatedly pulled down the makeup mirror to check it out as we drove back home.

It was kind of like finding that perfect pair of jeans. You search for months or even years and then one day you put one a pair and you stop and stare at yourself in the mirror, as if to say “Wow! Seriously? I can look this good!? Amazing!” And you would walk out of the dressing room and straight over to the register without even looking at the price tag. You don’t care. You’d pay just about anything to look like that and feel like that. The clerk rings you up and says, “Your total comes to $19.99.” Your knees buckle a little and your hand shakes as you pull out your debit card.

Honestly, I don’t even care of anyone else likes it. Because I do. And I feel happy when I see my reflection. Perhaps too often I listen to all the other messages coming from the world, or even my own not-so-good self-esteem. But right now, I don’t feel like I need to lose 40 pounds to be more beautiful, I don’t feel like I have to have perfect skin to have a more pleasing appearance, I don’t dread doing my hair in the morning. Every time I talk to someone, I’m NOT thinking, “They are probably wondering how on earth someone could have such underwelming hair!” Here comes the best part: I’m not even thinking about what they’re thinking! This, my friends, is progress.

Now, about this perfect pair of jeans...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We want a picture, we want a picture, we want a picture...

Michelle

Anonymous said...

It is the best thing in the world when we can make someone feel that great. I'm glad you found someone!!!

Laura K. said...

If only I could find the perfect haircut... I am still searching! Glad this experience was much better for you, Jeaner. : )

now post a hot picture of your hot self, kay?!

JodyCMF said...

I wanted to tell you Sunday night that I really liked your hair! I even pointed it out to Ryan. =) Yay for great hair days! I think you will be having a lot of those with that fabulous cut.