Saturday, April 22, 2006

It's Just a Dummy

I went in for highlights and a trim a couple of days ago. I was surprised to find most of the hair dressers standing in one area with mannequin heads bolted to the arms of chairs. They were having a "cutting class" with the representative of one of the products they carry, I think it was Aquage. Anyway, it was fascinating watching them and listening to them.

"Start at the oscipital lobe and follow a line down at a 45 degree angle." I would need a protractor to know what the hell a 45 degree angle looked like, But they all used their thinning razor and created these very fashionable short haircuts. I would have loved to have that style, but these heads all had straight, long hair, which I do not.

While my hairdresser, Katie, was folding thin layers of painted hair into aluminum foil, I talked about how it was so much more technical that I thought and about what difficulties she faces, the number one being the client who comes in with a celebrity photo and she wants that hair, when really she wants to be that celebrity. About this time, one of the hairdressers unbolted her head and started shaking it like she was trying to get the mercury down in a thermometer.

"Don't you wish you could do that to your clients sometimes," I said. Another hairdresser hung the head upside down while she wet it down with a spray bottle. I laughed at the irony that they were learning a technique for cutting hair but doing something they would never be able to do to a real client.

Sure was a cute cut, though. Not an everyday cut, mind you, but what's the fun in having the same style every day?

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