Haircut

RantWoman wishes to pen short praises to hair cuts.

RantWoman could easily think of big praises to the kinds of haircuts that involve write-downs of terrible loans in pools of toxic assets.

Today, though, RantWoman is indulging in a few moments of total bliss and personal hair vanity brought on by yesterday's trip to an actual chain hairstylist. RantWoman's hair is fluffy clean, freshly shorn and short enough that RantWoman cannot count on it staying braided overnight. The upside of hair this short is that until RantWoman braids it, it hangs crisply around RantWoman's face and RantWoman can pretend to a more sultry look than usual, at least for a bit.

RantWoman is really not a huge beauty industry customer. RantWoman has SOME standards about the hair care products she uses, but generally cheap is the first consideration. RantWoman gets her hair cut about once a year whether she needs it or not, and RantWoman was definitely overdue. When RantWoman's hair gets to be about waist length, it's just a lot of work to comb and braid it, and RantWoman had been feeling vexed for quite awhile.

Yesterday, RantWoman walked in and was seated almost immediately. RantWoman gave the stylist her usual instructions to hack off up to a foot of hair. Unlike previous stylists who sometimes cavil about the scope of this request, this one set right to work and the whole thing was done in a matter of minutes. RantWoman paid her bill, redid her now shortened braid and off she went. This is why RantWoman loves Great Clips .

(Accessibility digression: When RantWoman is searching for places to do business, she definitely gives priority to places with accessible sites. However, RantWoman does not particularly vouch for the accessibility of everything she links to. This site looks pretty functional to RantWoman's quick check, but RantWoman explicitly reserves the right to link to things that might not be accessible because customers come all kinds of ways and it's up to a business to react!)

RantWoman keeps her hair long enough to French braid. RantWoman can do a French braid without looking in the mirror. RantWoman can French braid on the bus, provided the bus is not so overcrowded that RantWoman has to stand or has to worry about elbowing other people mid-braid. RantWoman does not produce perfect braids all the time; some days she covers her hair sins with a hat. Other times, she rebraids.

Yesterday's stylist cooed pleasantly about how RantWoman's hair is in great shape. Sure. The hair spends most of its time in a braid, not getting blown around or subjected to other kinds of abuses. The stylist asked whether RantWoman knows any other braid techniques. No, but she might be amenable to learning, and studying diagrams in magazines or stylebooks would be much less of an option than average. Neither RantWoman nor the stylist thought to say, well how much would it cost to have you show me? RantWoman probably would not pay for other kinds of styling, but she might pay to have someone show her a different braid. File that thought for next year, but in the meantime, RantWoman is meditating about who to share her touchable hair with.