State_Of_Trance
Well-known member
I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I've almost always had my Mom cut my hair. Hey, it's free and I lived with her, so why not? Anyway, the new twelve hour drive between us kind of prevents that from happening, so for the first time in years I needed to do things like a real human bean.
I needed to plan a few things. Where to go? Do you tip? Do you always tip? Or do you not tip once the price of the cut goes above some threshold? You know I needed to plan conversation. Planning conversations is like an anxiety proof-of-purchase. It says, "Yes, I've joined that club."
I took some anxiety preventing measures. I don't start my job till this coming Monday, so any time is good for me. I picked 9:00 AM because it was the earliest time and half the people in this town work at one place and would have gone there at 8:00 AM. This way, I figured, there probably wouldn't be too many people there.
The place I picked gave me some nervousness as well. It was a "Men's Salon."
Let's pause and think about that. My first normal / anxiety inducing haircut will be at some swanky men's salon?!?!?! That's like diving head first into a freezing pool! Yeah, I suppose it can be good to "just do it", but jumping into a half-frozen lake in winter might kill you. The clients will probably be a bunch of classy types who'll make me feel out of place.
But what the hey. I put the folded sheet of paper with conversation ideas in my pocket and set off.
In the parking lot my heart beat a bit too fast.
Sure enough there were no other clients there. Initially it was just me and my hair person. Exactly as planned.
Conversation went well enough. The things I had jotted down were starting points and we took it from there while remaining mostly within the confines of stuff I had planned. I'm not from here, good restaurants in town, my unfamiliarity with the sometimes harsh weather around here, my apartment hunt and car buying (which I did after I got here), etc.
What was really nice was that things didn't get too personal. I hate talking about my hobbies and whatnot so I'm glad we didn't go there.
I'm still mad at myself for accidentally letting some information about myself slip that I didn't mean to give out. I somehow mentioned that I had been living at home and that my Mom usually cuts my hair. I do this kind of thing way more than I mean too. Forgive the humble brag, but I guess I'm not good at dissimulation. Stuff just bubbles out somehow.
My smallest denomination was five bucks, so I ended up tipping 5 bucks for a 25 dollar cut. The cut wasn't bad, but once I left I realized that the lighting / distance from mirror made it look better in the place. I'm not quite as satisfied now, but it isn't horrible.
So there you go. I did a Real Person™ thing and it went pretty well!
I needed to plan a few things. Where to go? Do you tip? Do you always tip? Or do you not tip once the price of the cut goes above some threshold? You know I needed to plan conversation. Planning conversations is like an anxiety proof-of-purchase. It says, "Yes, I've joined that club."
I took some anxiety preventing measures. I don't start my job till this coming Monday, so any time is good for me. I picked 9:00 AM because it was the earliest time and half the people in this town work at one place and would have gone there at 8:00 AM. This way, I figured, there probably wouldn't be too many people there.
The place I picked gave me some nervousness as well. It was a "Men's Salon."
Let's pause and think about that. My first normal / anxiety inducing haircut will be at some swanky men's salon?!?!?! That's like diving head first into a freezing pool! Yeah, I suppose it can be good to "just do it", but jumping into a half-frozen lake in winter might kill you. The clients will probably be a bunch of classy types who'll make me feel out of place.
But what the hey. I put the folded sheet of paper with conversation ideas in my pocket and set off.
In the parking lot my heart beat a bit too fast.
Sure enough there were no other clients there. Initially it was just me and my hair person. Exactly as planned.
Conversation went well enough. The things I had jotted down were starting points and we took it from there while remaining mostly within the confines of stuff I had planned. I'm not from here, good restaurants in town, my unfamiliarity with the sometimes harsh weather around here, my apartment hunt and car buying (which I did after I got here), etc.
What was really nice was that things didn't get too personal. I hate talking about my hobbies and whatnot so I'm glad we didn't go there.
I'm still mad at myself for accidentally letting some information about myself slip that I didn't mean to give out. I somehow mentioned that I had been living at home and that my Mom usually cuts my hair. I do this kind of thing way more than I mean too. Forgive the humble brag, but I guess I'm not good at dissimulation. Stuff just bubbles out somehow.
My smallest denomination was five bucks, so I ended up tipping 5 bucks for a 25 dollar cut. The cut wasn't bad, but once I left I realized that the lighting / distance from mirror made it look better in the place. I'm not quite as satisfied now, but it isn't horrible.
So there you go. I did a Real Person™ thing and it went pretty well!
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