Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

I’m one of those few individuals who does not like attention. I’d rather stay home and read a book or watch a happy-feel good movie. When I am invited to a dinner party, I pray that there will be an attention-seeker there. I am content to have my siblings brag about their accomplishments or complain about their spouses. I enjoy listening to the noises around me and detecting how many conversations I can follow at once.

Sometimes others might look at me as uninviting and cold, but really I just enjoy listening or talking to one person at a time.

I have always been shy, yet for some reason I enjoy being around people. There is something exhilarating about never knowing what the outcome of a conversation might be. There is always something I learn from even mediocre conversations. At times I observe the way others interact and compare whether that’s the same way people respond to me. When I open up, do they lean in? Are their eyes open wide? Is there a hint of a smile that means something relatable?

That was two years ago. I was the quietest person on the planet. I never spoke to anyone unless they addressed me. I live alone and have no interest in dating or socializing.

Everything changed when I got my first haircut. I never asked for change. I was happy with my quiet life.

I walked into the salon and was directed to a big black chair. I sit down, and Sam the hairdresser places one of those oversized gowns over my body and he snaps it shut so tight that I almost feel like he is choking me.

“So what would you like my dear?”

“Just go for it! I don’t really care”

I only went for a haircut because my grandma is turning one hundred next month. She gave me a crisp fifty dollar bill and said that I better use the money for a good chop. You don’t argue with someone who’s going to be one hundred years old. What the hell! I figured, what’s the worst that can happen?

So for the first time in my life, the hairdresser chops, I’m guessing about eighteen inches of jet black straight hair.

“Let the magic begin!” Sam says. Weirdo!

Chop chop chop!

I suddenly go into panic mode.

“Wait! Wait! Is it too much?”

“Honey I should be cutting a lot more! You should have come for a visit like ten years ago.”

This is why I hate appointments, they make you feel like losers and they say things like “You should be coming more often” or “If you see me every 6 months, you’ll feel so much better!”

Well perhaps I misjudged Sam, because he actually surprises me and starts asking how I am, like he really cares. I tell him about the office and how we import goods from China and he tells me about his recent travels across China. I am fascinated as he tells me a bit about the culture and mannerism. I especially enjoy hearing how he canoed with Chinese men in Guilin and of the special way they used large birds to trap fish in their beaks. It seemed cruel but also smart. In a way I felt like one of those birds, almost like I am here as a placeholder to eventually be used by someone else.

“Okay sweetheart! All done! Isn’t it magical?”

Enough with the magic. It’s already annoying that I’m forced into this.

Only out of curiosity, I hold the mirror that shows the back of my hair.

My straggly long hair is gone and in its place there is a thick straight bob.

I take a good look at the front and look at the chin length hair and side bangs sweeping across an angle on my forehead.

“Aw isn’t she a beauty?” Sam shows off to the other staff.

They all take pictures. I don’t really understand the big deal. I didn’t do anything. It’s not like I’m famous or anything. It’s only a haircut!

I go to the cash and pay and shove off people trying to take pictures. I’m almost tempted to take a cab to shove off any more attention.

“Already paid for!” Says the cashier as she hands me back my fifty. I try to offer a tip but she shrugs it off and says that I’ve done enough advertising for them today, whatever the hell that means.

I walk out of the store and start heading to the bus stop but there’s a limo right outside and the windows are rolled down and people who appear about my age are yelling “Sara! Sara!” And I turn around to look behind me thinking it has to be the “other” Sara like in high school where it was never me they were talking to. “Sara! Sara! Join us in the limo!” And then I recognize a few of my former classmates, including some of the popular ones but I also spot Angela whom I remember hiding in the library with. I get in the car, I guess it couldn’t hurt.

“Sara!” I hear the voice of used-to-be-most-popular-guy-in-high school say. “Where would you like to go princess?” Is that who I was now, a princess? “I’d like, if that’s okay with you to see my grandma.” I was about to give her address but they already plugged it into the GPS.

“Oh darling! You look absolutely incredible, as always!” What???? After trying all this time to blend in I suddenly look incredible???

Grandma greets me at her front door and gives me a massive bear hug.

“Thanks so much grandma! And for paying!”

“Oh honey, that’s nothing! I might has well see you enjoy my money before I die.”

“Grandma! You’re nothing past eighty!”

“My how you flatter! Well come invite your friends in for a drink. That’s the trick to being 99, just a shot of whiskey every day.”

I invite them in and Tom and Angela sit near me on the couch. Grandma turns on her classical CD and everyone slow dances, which would probably feel awkward without the alcohol.

I think I passed out after because the next thing I remember I wake up in a king-size bed with fluffy pillows and a thick pink blanket. I stifle a yawn and look around. The closets are bigger than my (old?) apartment, and they are filled with at least one hundred pairs of shoes, tons of organized clothes and my favorite- a walk-in-library. Whomever set this up, knows me incredibly well or maybe wants to change me or wants me to fit into this new lifestyle.

I debate calling in sick but at the same time, I am craving some normalcy. I grab the first outfit I see, which is a pink suit that looks like it walked out of Legally Blonde. I put on a pair of black heels and hail a cab. The limo was not waiting for me today.

Luckily, the office staff don’t take much notice of me. They do look at me as if I look different and they are not sure how or why. Then, they quickly get back to work.

I head to my desk and check my emails. At exactly 11:03 I get the call. It’s mom.

“Sara, it’s grandma,” she says, I can tell she is shaking.

I sob and I sob and I can’t stop…