Cutting my losses

I had a fairly bizarre haircut yesterday. My stylist, shall we say, "wasn't on her game". In her defense, in the little bit of small talk at the beginning of my session, she did mention that it had been a very busy day and, when the adjacent stylist was trying to gage the estimated wait time, my barber shared that she’d not had her break yet.

There was very little talking beyond the initial pleasantries. (I’m not saying I minded. Often, barber chair talk is fairly formulaic and I’m ok with zoning out while they focus their attention on the task at hand.)

Speaking of focusing and hands… while trimming the top of my head with the scissors, she nicked herself. She initially said she'd be fine, but that she was most concerned with not wanting to bleed all over me. (A concern I appreciated and shared.) She continued to look at her finger and wince and then excused herself to the back room.

This is something I've never really thought about before, but I suppose inadvertent cuts are a very real occupational hazard when you cut hair for a living.

She returned and resumed my cut. A few minutes later... "Ouch!" She again excused herself.

The stylist at the next station was trying to make small talk to fill the awkward void of me sitting all alone in a barber chair with wet hair and a partial haircut, but she chose to mention that she knew someone who wound up needing stitches from a slip. (I'm not sure that actually made me feel any better.)

My stylist returned and she was able to finish my cut without additional incident.

When she was done cutting, she excused me to the sink for a rinse. After that, I returned to the chair and she used the blow drier for a bit, and then she was done.

She didn’t do the "place pointer fingers at the base of both sideburns to validate alignment” trick. She did not do the "how does this look" coupled with the hand mirror in the back maneuver. She did not do the "comb the bangs straight down to show how short they are and ask 'Is that short enough?'" She was just done.

Truth be told, I wasn't too eager to give a tired, clumsy, and forgetful barber another shot at me with sharp implements. It seemed best to cut my losses.

 

Here's a clip: