I remember several years ago a dear friend offering to pay for me to get a haircut because she was so afraid of seeing me butcher it at Great Clips, which was where I planned to have it cut. I didn't make her pay, but I did find another place with a reasonable or free price... I think it was Kenneth's Hair Salon.
Today I was a little more influenced by Dave Ramsey. I needed/wanted a haircut and I just couldn't stomach the prices of most hair salons, that probably are better and safer for most people! I debated returning to Aveda's Institute on campus, but memories of embarrassing myself sitting backwards in the massage chair and hearing my stylist ask the instructor what a round curl was (she had just told him to do this to my hair), I ruled that option out as well. I reasoned that I am rarely happy with my haircut regardless of the amount paid, so I might as well be unhappy losing $13 instead of $45 if I was going to be disappointed.
I drove past Second Glance and wondered if my husband would notice the missing money if I accidentally turned in there instead... After all, he had already suggested I could spend more if I wanted to. But I drove on with growing dread, pulled into the parking lot, waited a minute, then got out, wondering if any self-respecting women would pay only $13 for a haircut, wondering if any women even went there at all, wondering if the man on the phone really understood what I meant when I asked if it was $13 to get my hair layered and not just chopped, wondering what the people in there would think of me for paying so little for a haircut, and wondering if I should just go back home--but I took the plunge. I sat in the waiting area for a few minutes until a woman with hair buzzed on the sides and curly on top called my name for me to come sit on her chair. I hoped she wasn't insulted when I explained adamantly that I did not want it so short in the back you had to use a razor. She understood and didn't seem at all offended that I didn't want her same haircut. As she cut I was startled by how perfectly she seemed to understand what I wanted done to my hair. It was perfect, and I could not have been more pleased. I would describe why I liked it so much but that would be more boring than me writing about a haircut. So kudos to Great Clips! Glad I took the risk, and I'll be back!
Lastly, I want to talk about bananas... I know--there is no good way to make that transition! I read in a frugal cooking cookbook a story about the author and her husband sharing a banana for dessert. Tonight, I imagined I was eating dessert when I ate a banana and thought about it as a special, delicious, end of the day treat. I loved it, even more than usual, mostly just because how I thought of it (this experiment has to be with something that is actually good and you like eating; this would not have worked for me with a string of olives or carrots). I still finished off our brownies a bit later... but thinking back on it, I think I actually preferred the banana. The brownie was more of a disappointment and the banana a surprise.
I wonder how much of our actions and opinions are really just how we have been conditioned to think about things. I am not being a relativist here and saying it is all in our heads, but I am saying a lot probably is. I mean how important really is a haircut? We all want to look nice, of course, but how did they become so expensive? I did get lucky at Great Clips (meanwhile, everyone who looks at me hates my hair and thinks I must have gotten a cheap haircut... ha!), and others might not have the same luck, but it still is interesting how much we have come to value how the ends of our hair appear. In a similar way, does my sugary, chocolate brownie really taste better than the banana, or do I just think so because it is called dessert? Try to sleep with that question in your head!
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