Thread by @GailSimone

I will tell a quick hairdressing story, this is my favorite true salon tale. It won't take long.

I had my own salon, and to be immodest, I was very, very good. I always was too busy, and even now, years later, clients ask me if I am ever coming back. :)

One time, a nice client I had said she was bringing in a friend, and it might be a little complicated.

Now, I had done hair for a lot of situations, I cut hair in the hospital for ill clients, that sort of thing. But my client brought in this very nice, very attractive older lady, she might have been maybe mid 70's. Let's call her Linda.

Linda comes in, she couldn't be nicer, very graceful lady, but she also was clearly terrified. I mean, trembling, looking like she wanted to bolt. I get her in the chair, she's even worse.

Now, some people are genuinely afraid of hairdressers, so you learn calming techniques. I ask her what she wants, and she tells me, "whatever you think will look nice."

So, long story short, I do her hair, she's gripping the handrests of the chair like she's about to rip them off. She never fully relaxes.

I finish up, and she couldn't be nicer. And after she is done, she looks in the mirror and starts crying, and says, "It's perfect." And she suddenly gives me this huge, long hug. It's clear something's happening, but I don't know what.

Later, when my other client comes in for her next appointment, the one who brought Linda, I get the whole story.

I would never have believed it, but it happened.

It turns out that Linda had been to the hairdresser exactly twice in her entire life. 70 + years old, I was her second hair appointment. In her whole life.

The first time was 50 years previous. It was for her wedding.

She had waited for her wedding her whole young life, and her hairdresser butchered her hair. Gave her a perm that burned both her hair and her scalp.

And so for her wedding day, she thought she looked like a monster.

She didn't even want wedding photos. And she never went to a hairdresser again, not until my little salon, fifty years later. That would be pressure enough.

But I asked why, why did Linda change her mind five decades later?

And it turned out that she had terminal cancer, and had actually passed away since her appointment.

She wanted to look nice for her funeral.

So one of her last happy memories was in my chair, helping erase a fifty year old SAD memory.

I know the story sounds sad, but I always think of it as a happy story, because she came in terrified and left beaming. It meant so much to her.

Life happens, you can't stop it.

But some amazing stuff is in the mix, sometimes.