Help Your Hairdresser, Fix Yourself

Once upon a time I worked in a hair salon.

When you work as a hairdresser, you see a side of humanity few ever see. In fact, you see a side of people that they themselves rarely see.

When you’re working on someone’s hair, you begin to decipher their idiosyncrasies and oddities as simple insecurities and fears.

Now, what those fears are I still, 27+ years later have no clue. Nonetheless, there they are- for only their hairdresser to see.

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Take my friend Julie. Julie asked me to take 6 inches off her hair that was already well past her backside. Julie and I TOGETHER measured how much 6 inches are. How many of you know a client’s 6 inches is like a man’s description of 6 inches. Just sayin…

We measured the hair AFTER it was cut.

When the cut was finished, Julie didn’t speak to me for a week. She admitted she knew it was her issue to be upset about her decision, that I did exactly as she had asked, yet the loss of her 6 inches was too much to bare, so she needed to be angry with someone.

Guess it’s easier to be mad at the hairdresser than yourself.

Take Dori. Dori was a special kind of client. I think she made the rounds through every hairdresser in that shop. Not me, Lord thank you for that bit of mercy. Dori demanded every stylist to make her hair red, like red red. Fire engine red. Although not fire engine red, bright red. But not too bright. Warm, but not like a carrot. But also not too much blue tones either. Are you beginning to see what we saw and feel what we all felt. Even if Dori wasn’t your client, you felt every bit of her issues, whatever they may be.

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Decades later I still marvel at those two clients and the countless others I had who were so riddled with mass insecurities, yet could never see it.

Today I marvel at folks’ oddities and quirks that are masked in demands and must dos, but are really just fears manifesting as selfish behavior.

I wasn’t allowed to speak truth to the Dori and Julies of my day. In fact, one time I told a client to not darken my chair again and got in trouble with my bosses. They said she could have gone to someone else in the salon. Problem was, I didn't hate anyone that much to inflict that mess on.

I wasn’t allowed to speak truth over these folks, but social media being a free space and all, I can speak truth over you, the one who is reading all the way to the end.

Chances are you have insecurities, fears and anxieties that you have created a mask of oddities and idiosyncrasies. Personally, I don’t like going out of the house without mascara because I think I look like a boiled onion.

Growing up in my family you were told being pretty and thin was real important.

So what’s my point?

The difference between me and Julie and Dori, is I can be satisfied in life, in my day, and even have a scosh of confidence even if I face it sans mascara. It’s not my first choice, but if I show up to an event, pale face style, I am pretty satisfied with me, my life, and certainly my purpose to allow black goo missing from my lashes to shift my high vibration and sunny outlook.

Those who are just never quite satisfied with their lives, their whole selves and of course, their purpose, tend to over compensate by creating false securities in the form of long hair, red hair, or whatever changeable body piece.

When this continues, rather than grow into the women they were created to be & making a stunning impact on the world around them, they risk becoming a miserable cow as the years go by.

It’s time to come put from behind your insecurities others call oddities. It’s time for you to step into what and who you were designed to be.

It’s time, dear one, to get comfy in your own skin and soar to a new height.

If nothing else, you’ll significantly impact your hairdresser’s day for the better.