So, I did it again. Although I had
promised myself so many times not to repeat the mistake. An important in-person
meeting was the next day and, I for one reason or the other had not gotten
myself a hair cut that was due a few weeks ago. No, you don't look like a
zombie, my wife nicely said, when I asked her; but you do look sick. Which
meant that I did look like a sick zombie, if that is even a thing.
Looked at the watch and it was 30
minutes past 6pm, the saloon I go to will be open for another 90 minutes which
will mean I had to rush as it was about 30 minutes away in evening traffic and
they rarely take appointments in last hour before closing. I rushed and reached
just in time to get my name added in the day's walk ins.
Then the stylist came, I’ve never seen her before, she was new. That was destiny teaching a lesson. My age-old habit of procrastinating on my hair cut plans was reciprocated in getting me a rookie stylist when I needed a very good hair cut to look decent for an important meeting.
And she started, visibly more nervous
than me, which made me even more nervous and that increased her nervousness
further. This nervous escalation had to stop, I decided, and I invoked
confidence in my mind about her abilities. I wish I could suggest the same to her.
She stayed nervous and now in hind sight I can say the whole scene was funny.
Should I cut them short she asked, and
I knew she should, but what if she cuts too much? I said, yes but not too
short. And she cut just a little, almost none. I still had a zombie look, may
be not a sick zombie look anymore. Can you please cut some more, I said, not
too much, I cautiously added. She reluctantly cut a bit more.
This crazy cycle ran for a few times
and appeared like it had taken many hours.
Finally, I decided to end this cycle for both our sakes and asked her to stop. She quickly stopped and hurriedly took my apron off. As if, making sure I don’t change my mind. I noticed bit more hair taken off from one side of the head than other, but what can one do.
I felt relief that it ended. I was not looking like I usually do after a haircut, but was not looking horrible as I had feared at the start of this ordeal. She was relieved more than I was, for one that this was over and may be because my hair was not looking horrible. I was happy, thinking that it could have been a lot worse but it didn't. She was happier than me, may be having same thought as I was having.
Two totally unknown people in a totally weird situation could make each other happy even without either one of them trying, I learnt this on that day.
Happiness CAN Happen !!
In hind sight I feel good that my not so bad haircut was a part of her training. I am sure that she learnt something about dealing with a nervous client that day. I learnt not to push my haircut plans to last minute. See, in the end it was a win-win.
I hope one day when she is an ace stylist,
she will laugh telling this story to someone, that how she almost survived a
nervous customer in her rookie days. Hope I see her again in a year or so and
we both can be confident. And hope now I will not delay my haircut to absolute last-minute
situation.
By the way my meeting next day got
canceled. By next week when it happened, I had grown some hair back and looked almost my usual self. As they day "All is well that ends well"
