Monday, November 15, 2010

On Hair, And Time

I've been thinking about Sarah's haircut a lot. The whole time I was hacking away at it, increasingly desperate about getting it right as she wiggled and squirmed on the chair, I couldn't help but think about all those times my mother took the shears to my head. She had a pair of those scary long-handled barber's scissors -- do you know the ones I mean? The long, thin silver blades looked like an egret or heron's bill. I used to dream about those scissors -- I dreamt about them again this weekend before cutting Sarah's hair.

How many times did my mom cut my hair? I can't possibly guess. A dozen? Two dozen? More? I DISTINCTLY remember the last time, though. I was 13 and had hair down to my waist. It had been years -- two? three? -- since my last trim and apparently Mom had had enough. "Just a trim! Just enough to take the dead ends off!" she begged. I gave in.

I sat in the bathroom on the cold closed lid of the toilet, as was usual, with a terrycloth bath towel around my shoulders and my damp hair slicked down my back. Skrritch! Skrritch! And then (I'm pretty sure this isn't just embellished memory), "Oops."

Yeah.

By the time she finished, my hair was over a foot shorter. Apparently there was a LOT of fixing going on back there, Mom.

As I took my turn wielding the scissors Saturday, my only hope was not to get myself into a situation I had to, you know, FIX. Skrrritch! Skrrritch! Who knew cutting hair could be so emotionally exhausting?

Sorry about all the wiggling, Mom. I had no idea.

2 comments:

Kathy White said...

Well, MY mother "usta" SET my hair, in BEER!! Now that was kinda fun, actually. You should try it on Sarah sometime, as the beer makes the hair hold curls and at the same time makes it crunchy until you brush it-- and then the beer "fragrance" dissipates!

I was asked by a friend to trim her hair-once! She was livid with rage when she saw what I had done-- which was EXACTLY what she had asked me to do, but then, it's all in the eye of the beholder.

I have many more hair stories, some of which include the comment upon seeing my silver hair, " Oh, I just LUUUVV youar haeyerrr!" Of course this happens only in The South....

Anonymous said...

Oh, Tia, it's as if it were yesterday. I can so visualize that exact experience...and wiggle you did! (Although I was quite pleased with the results.)