Friday, June 04, 2010

The Longest Haircut Ever

A friend and I went to get haircuts today at a beauty school here in Evanston. It's not a "name brand" school and I was a little wary. I've gone to the Aveda school many times and they've never failed me. But we really didn't feel like having to go all the way to the city just to get haircuts so why not try this place. What would be the worst thing that could happen, right?

We got there on time for our 1:30pm appointments and I was in a chair with Chrystal 10 minutes later. I asked her how long she'd been on the floor and she said, "Three weeks." That's usually how I decide whether I'm just going to get the same haircut I had only shorter, or something new. This was clearly going to be a healthy trim day.

It took about 15 minutes to shampoo my hair. There was water everywhere. Chrystal was very, very new. At least I knew enough to take off my hoop earrings. And the whole shampoo process was strange. For the hair right above my forehead and at my temples, she just sort of patted the shampoo in. Like I said, very new. And the back of my head got a good scrub. Weird.

And then she started cutting. Like Aveda, there are instructors everywhere and she and I were thankfully working with a very good one. There were others who were very obviously not as good, so I had one thing going in my favor. Chrystal was very slow, methodical and detail oriented. I suppose that's a good thing, but I felt like she was cutting each hair individually.

They always ask how I style my hair at home and what products I use. I always have to laugh. I wash it, towel dry it, and it styles itself. And every once in a while I put a leave-in conditioner in, but not so often that it could constitute a routine. But they put all sorts of goop in my hair anyway and dry it. I didn't have the heart to tell her I was going to the gym afterwards.

A full two and a half hours later, I was finally done. I was too embarrassed to ask if she really had cut every hair individually.