The Beauty Shop

Years ago when we started the discussion of my quitting work full time to come home and be a full time mother and housewife, I declared that the one thing I would not give up was my hair appointment. I would willingly give up new clothes (except now I would need to buy a new wardrobe of jeans), expensive vacations, frequent dinners out, curtail my spending, limit my antique auctions, but I would not give up my trips to my beautician. After all there are some things that are too important to mess with.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not a slave to beauty and self indulgence. This isn't about glamor but sanity!! Small town beauty shops are the equivalent of Floyd's Barber Shop in Mayberry. It's the place where women gather to "let down their hair", relax, share, gain insight and often strength. It's a place to laugh, cry, brag, extol, regale, and release. It's a place where women put aside all the pretense and window dressing of their lives and come together in common. In these small shops plans are made, lives are changed, decisions reached and worlds shaken. Getting your hair done is incidental.

When my cancer treatments made the excursion to the beauty shop unnecessary, it didn't stop me. My first visit was to get the expert opinion of the beautician (and various women getting clipped, shampooed, and colored) on the best wig to buy. Who knows the color of my hair better than my beautician, after all she's the one who makes it that color. The next visit was to get the new wig shaped to my face. Then I had to return to report how many people commented on how nice my "hair" looked. With each visit I left feeling a little more upbeat, a little better about myself. The sympathy, compassion, support and comic relief of the women went way beyond belief.

Maybe it's because you can't take the world too seriously when your hair is standing on end covered in aluminum foil or little pink permanent rods. It could be that when you are "stripped down to basics" the true you shines through with no pretenses. Whatever it is...thank you ladies for the good times.