June 09th, 2020

Like most people, it had been far too long since I had a haircut.  With the virus lock-downs and closures starting in March, by June my hair was beginning to look more like a mop on my head than a hairstyle.  It was all so very sad.  But in the grander scheme of things (I find that I say that a lot these days) the way my hair looks is not nearly as important as being healthy.  And healthy I am. So I mostly just whipped my hair into a silly little ponytail and just rolled with it.

But then came the glorious day when someone at the salon where I get my hair done called to see if I wanted to make an appointment.  Heck yeah I do!  And so I did.  And it was last Friday.  Hurrah hurrah!

I knew that it would be a different sort of appointment because everything is now.  Once I made the appointment I was told what to expect, so I was mostly prepared.  But knowing something intellectually is never exactly the same as actually doing it.  So here is how it went.

I showed up right on time.  I was told that there would be no waiting inside. Gotcha.  So as soon I parked the car, I walked to the salon and called to let them know I had arrived.   I stood literally outside the door waving at Val, the very nice lady who answers the phone there.  She smiled, waved, said hello back and that Carolyn, my hairdresser would be right out.  

I knew I had to be masked, so that was already done.  I wondered if she would recognize me, but never fear, Carolyn came directly to me with a very welcoming greeting, took my temperature and lead me into the inner sanctum.

I was reminded a little bit of stories I had heard about speak-easy's during Prohibition.  Where you knock on an unmarked door in a dark alley, someone slides open a little panel and asks for the password.  

Once inside I was given a few squirts of hand sanitizer and then directed to the ladies room to wash my hands.  Apparently the hand sanitizer was just in case I felt it necessary to touch anything on the way to the ladies room.  I did not.  But I always appreciate the opportunity for a thorough handwash. Done.  Ok.  

Back to regularly scheduled programming right?  Well not quite.  Next was having my mask taped to my face. What?  Well how else are they going to properly cut hair with those loops around your ears?  Once the mask was taped to my face, the ear loops could be removed and then everything could happen.  Just like normal?  Well almost like normal.

Wearing a face mask while having your hair washed, conditioned and rinsed is going to get your mask a little wet.  Having wet hair hanging down while it's being combed is also going to at the very least get your mask damp.  And having a serious hair cut is going to make teensy tiny hair fly around and get stuck in the mask no matter how hard everyone tries for it to not happen.  And those tiny hairs are so dang itchy!!  But it's never a good idea to scratch while a hair cut is going on.  Bad things could happen.  So I ignored the itch as best I could (which is not very good in truth) but held statue still which she cut and trimmed and shaped and did her job.    

Once the scissory part was done we moved on to the styling part which, because I was damp and itchy felt like it took twice as long as usual (which was totally not the case, I'm just kind of a big baby).  My nose was twitching with itchiness!  Whenever I am wearing a mask, my nose immediately begins to itch. And it takes everything in my power to Not Scratch.  This was so much worse than usual. It Was Like Torture!

Finally she peeled the tape off my face (and some of my hair which got caught in the tape - oops) and had to do a little minor repair trimming.  But finally, my patience was rewarded.  At long last, it was done.  I looked human again.  And my hair looked more like actual hair and less like a bad wig.    At my request she cut my hair a wee bit shorter than usual and it feels great.  I cannot ponytail it now, but then, I don't need to either.  I paid,  made my next appointment,  thanked everyone and calmly, casually even, stepped outside the door.  Whereupon I ripped my mask off and scratched and rubbed at my face until the itching stopped.  Whew!  What a relief!

The instant I got home, that mask went into the wash where, hopefully, all those little hairs washed right down the drain.
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So happy to have my hair trimmed. And glad to have made it through another post-virus appointment relatively unscathed.  But more than anything I am so glad to have that dang mask off!

​The finished product.  So Much Better!