True confession: I was unfaithful this week in New York. Afterwards, I felt like a walking cliché because I was armed with all of the stereotypical excuses:
It didn’t mean anything. It just happened
I was out of town.
It was only one time.
I did it for the excitement.
I was feeling bored.
I wasn’t looking for it.
I know I will have to face the music soon enough. But truthfully I don’t regret doing it. It felt right and still does. And in fact, I am recommending that every woman do this at least once in her life.
I cheated on my hairdresser. This is my story.
Seriously it’s a great story. I was speaking at a conference in the Big Apple this week. On Tuesday night, as I board my Amtrak train, I am immediately struck by this woman sitting in the very first seat of the car. She has the cutest hair I have ever seen. Short. Textured. Highlights. I took the seat next to her. As a well-learned rule I do not start conversations with strangers on the train but for some reason, I felt compelled to compliment her hair. I think it was because she smiled at me.
Little did I know that I had sat down next to the Sassy Hair Chick. It was fate.
Her real name is Debbi Basile and she is a mother of brothers! She lives in Baltimore and commutes to New York where she is following her dream of becoming a top hair stylist there. She had recently worked for Nick Arrojo (hair stylist for TLC’s “What Not To Wear”) doing color but missed the cutting and styling. Debbi is launching her Sassy Hair Chick business and is renting a chair on 5th Avenue to get started. Her specialty is makeovers.
So there I was on the 8:00 p.m. train to New York feeling very much like the “before” picture in a beauty magazine. Have you ever felt this way? Most of the day’s make-up was gone. My hair was just hanging there, tucked behind my ears with a headband that was probably askew. I was dressed down for travel. Total frumpaholic. Debbi was an “after” picture. (And she had just had root canal!) Why am I not exactly like this woman? She could sense my longing and asked me how long I was going to be in New York.
Now remember I have been growing my hair out FOR THE LAST NINE MONTHS. I had this vision that when I turn 40 in November, I would have long, sexy hair at my BIG dance party. Because, as everyone knows, long hair is unequivocally sexy. And, for me, turning 40 and maintaining some semblance of sex appeal is… well…. appealing. I had suffered through nearly one hundred consecutive bad hair days to get to this point where my hair could be pulled back into a pony tail. I was making great progress.
But there was something about the Sassy Hair Chick.
So on Wednesday morning I snuck out of the conference with my two colleagues/gal pals and sat in Debbi’s chair for almost two hours while she cut each strand of my hair with a straight edge razor. She fixed my bangs which she informed me were too straight.
She gave me choppy, piecy, short locks which I love. Where my hair once hung straight with no energy, it’s now totally zippy. And I can do it myself. I was totally sassified!!!
I am going to go back for color in July. I could become one of those women who says, “oh, I only go to New York to get my hair cut.” This makes me giggle. So Debbi got a gushing client and I got another reader for the MoB. We are both trying to do big things with the things we love to do. And I think I made a new friend to boot.
I know that most of our MoB women readers would never do what I did this week with my hair. But the universe put the Sassy Hair Chick and the Mother of Brothers on that train together for a reason. All I did was follow along.
Sometimes to get somewhere in life, you have to put a little faith in people. Even if, once in your life, it means being unfaithful.
BEFORE
AFTER
