After weeks of quarantine I was able to finally get a
haircut! While the salon I visit doesn’t
serve mimosas or has an atmosphere worth mention, I have been going to this
humble establishment for years. It is
run by a Vietnamese man on a wheelchair and his posse of skilled Vietnamese
women. They are quite efficient and I
think that’s what I love most. In
addition to, taking walk-in clients because when it comes to visiting the salon,
I usually am quite spontaneous. This
week when I visited, I found one of my Salvation Army friends sitting underneath
the hair dryer, “I have been coming here for ten years,” she proudly shared. Linda,
my usual hairstylist, welcomed me with a warm smile and immediately proceeded
to work on my hair, after the initial exchanges she went quiet because she
knows that I am not much of a small-talk conversationalist. In fact, I think most of the ladies are rather
quiet because they get lost in their work.
As I sat in my chair, I marveled at how much I love Unlimited
Hair & Nails Salon. Not being able to visit gave me a new appreciation for
this hole in the wall establishment.
Usually, I never recommend the place because women usually look for a
luxury pampering session and my place is certainly not that. When busy, the hairstylist work on more than
one client at a time and if you want your nails and hair done, usually you have
two people working on you at the same time.
Ladies usually pay more money for slow, focused pampering. Yet, I have never liked being at the salon
for many hours, nor do I like the spotlight solely on me, so I like the speed
with which they work at my place. They also don’t have the high-end equipment
they don’t serve cocktails or have a television - everything is very basic. Yet, to me walking in with a mop of a
hairstyle and coming out with lighter locks is reward enough.
I had been feeling quite insecure lately. I think when there is so much change, I can
become quite self-conscious. I mean
things like not getting a like on a post lead me to speculate all types of scenarios. These past few months I had been trying just
to survive the rollercoaster of quarantine the best way I could and not being
able to run to the faith things that usually balance me has been quite the
struggle. My strongest love language is
quality time and during quarantine I couldn’t practice this because screens
make everything so impersonal. Though I
tried to meet with bible study groups, attend Mass, see friends - virtually is
not the same… Thus, when I sat on the chair to have Linda work on my hair, I
felt so good. Finally, some physical
contact with someone outside my home.
When I was done, I felt like a little of my confidence returned not only
because my hair didn’t look like wires, but because I saw a glimpse of life
going back to normal. I couldn’t
understand how healing sitting in a salon chair felt or what the process
returned to me, but I wanted to share how much I love my little hole in the
wall salon.
No comments:
Post a Comment