Hair We Go

My son has been growing his hair long for about a year now, give or take. He's had haircuts, but he's always wanted to keep the length. I think he thought it was better for his rock and roll image (he's learning electric guitar, and he's 9). Every time we took him for a trim, he was adamant about keeping it as long as possible.

You can imagine my surprise when on Monday, he asked if I would take him for a haircut. A real haircut. I told him that he just got a haircut before school started. He had just finished a cross country meet, and had his best time yet, and told me that his hair kept going into his eyes. He wanted it short, like a regular short haircut. He wanted to cut it all off.

Inside I'm jumping up and down. It's not that I don't like long hair on boys, I do. But my son's hair is fine and straight, with cowlicks all over the place. It's hard to get it to lay flat where he wants it to be flat. He just doesn't have the right hair type for long hair.

On the outside, I pointed out that cross country will be over next week, he's been growing his hair a while, and asked if he was sure he really wanted to cut it all off at this point. He said yes, he did, because hockey will be starting soon, and the helmet pushed his hair in his eyes, too. Inside, I was jumping up and down!

I told him I would call Miss Jenny* to make an appointment. He said, well, since I'm just getting a regular haircut, can we go to a crummy place (his words), like ______? Then he quickly said, no, I'd rather see Miss Jenny, she was awesome.

And he's not wrong.

As you can imagine, through the years I've been to many different places for salon services. Over the course of more than 30 years of going to a salon of my choosing (not where my mom went), there are a few stylists that really made an impression. Some were male, some were female, some were gay, some were straight, but a few I really had a good rapport with.

Vinnie*- owned his own salon, partnered with a local club to do “hair shows”. Basically, they were fashion shows, but hairstyles were the focus. I had some really cool hairstyles and makeup done because of this. One show was a Batman theme, and I had a dress fashioned out of a black trash bag. You'd never know it was a garbage bag stapled onto me by Marlene*. I need to find pictures from that one. Another one was themed Jungle Love, and we were all made up like Cats, ala the musical. We had so much fun doing those. Vinnie gave me my favorite hairstyle ever; I had a sunburst bleached into my hair that started above one ear, went to the other side, and the haircut was angled to match. I was like 19, it was acceptable for me to wear my hair like that. Don't judge :)

Lisa and Robin*- my stylists in Chicago. Mostly they are mentioned because I went to their salon for about 7 years.

Neal*- worked at a salon in Williamsville. We had the kind of stylist/client relationship where I could sit in the chair and tell him “just a cut, not too short”, or “let your creativity run wild”. He always made me look fabulous. He left to pursue a different profession, and I was sad.

Don't remember her name (must have blocked it out)- worked at a salon in Amherst. I went there, very pregnant, with a picture of what I wanted. She gave me a shag haircut, like Carol Brady. It was almost like two haircuts, and both of them were bad. First and only time I ever cried in the chair.

Jenny- current stylist. I adore her, my kids adore her, and she is phenomenal. She listens to you, always cuts less first, makes suggestions if what you want won't work for you. My daughter has curly hair. It's long and very heavy, so it was being pulled nearly straight. By the time Jenny was done, my daughter had curls and a style. Bonus- as good as she is, and she IS really good, she doesn't charge $50 for a haircut. She could charge that, and more, but she doesn't.

So I wasn't surprised when my son said he wanted me to call Jenny.

My kids have a half day of school today, and Jenny has an opening for this afternoon. Serendipity at work.

*Not their real names. I change names in my blog because I don't know if the people I'm writing about want to be mentioned.