I had to sit my husband down to give him the bad news.
As he sat down, I could see his mental preparation for a death in the family, a monumental loss or a massive disaster. Well, it was all three.
I feel I must also prepare my readers for the magnitude of what I am about to say, but it might be best perhaps to just blurt it out and wait for your sympathetic and understanding emails. Wait for it: Our hairdresser has resigned and moved onto a new (albeit exciting) profession.
At this point, just take a moment to settle the shock because shock it is when the person who has cut your hair for nigh on 10 plus years and to whom you have poured your heart out (aren’t hairdressers actually psychiatrists with scissors?) abandons you? it is like being thrown out of some sort of hairy nest into the great unknown of salons with quirky names.
She sent us this news via text. I suppose it is common practice to dump people via text so I shouldn’t take her method of delivery badly, given the fact that she did display her usual wonderful courtesy and let us know.
And so you are thrown into that moral dilemma of wishing your hairdresser/friend all the very best in their new endeavours and being utterly selfish and wishing that things could remain the same. Of course you send them the ‘all very best’ sort of reply and you mean it too, but I would be dishonest not to admit a yearning for stability and status quo.
My hope is that we can see each other as friends because I really like my hairdresser. She stood by me when my hair was just growing back after chemotherapy and came with me to purchase a wig when I my hair fell out. I mean, what hairdresser does that? Only one destined to also be a friend.
But will she recognise as I slowly morph into Cousin It? And how will I break in a new hairdresser who will cheerfully not nod as I tell her what I want and then do what she wants to anyway? is there anyone else I will be able to voice my horror at having red hair to in full knowledge that we will laugh at the experience together? It behoves me now to traverse the strange world of salons with hairy names and find another.