I was browsing in a shop in The Lanes, which is all that's left of medieval Brighton - narrow winding pedestrian only streets with zillions of little boutiques. I became aware that a young woman was staring at me and following me around the shop. I turned to her and smiled and she blurted out that she had seen me pass the Trevor Sobie Salon, where she works, and followed me. She said she was a trainee and needed to pass a blow dry exam, but her model had cancelled. She asked if I would do it for her. She couldn't offer me anything but a shampoo/blow dry, but if I came back later in her training she would do a color or cut or anything I wanted. She could do it now, or later in the day, or at my convenience.
I was taken aback. I thought about how this could be a con and asked a couple of questions and then I just shrugged and said -sure. Why not? She was so grateful.
So I went back to the salon with her - Hannah is her name - and down to the basement training area. I got a shampoo, and blissful conditioning head massage and a blow dry.
She passed her exam. Thank heavens, I would have felt so (irrationally) guilty otherwise.
On the way out of the training lab, I had to walk a kind of gauntlet of other trainees telling me what great hair I have, how lucky I am to have such a nice color etc. Hairdressers always make a big fuss of my hair and I'm sort of flattered on the one hand, but uncomfortable on the other hand. I guess it feels like undeserved praise, since it is just a lucky DNA draw and I don't actually do anything to warrant praise.
Anyway, it's always pleasant to have someone wash and blow dry your hair, plus, it's a nice feeling to do something nice for a stranger for no reason at all.
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I had a similar thing happen to me, standing in Powells about 6 years ago. Strange, to have a stranger walk up to you and ask you if they can do your hair -- and not in a creepy, stalkerish way. In my case, it was to cut a bob, and she approached me because my hair was already half way to a bob and I needed a cut. Not many people were wearing their hair in bobs in Portland in those days, she told me.
In my case, I had to go downtown on another day and to a quite prestigious salon -- the kind I normally am not willing to pay for. I got the cut for free (and it was a very good cut, but took hooooouuuuuurrrrssss) and also had to run a gauntlet -- short, since the trainer was with her for much of the cut (essentially, I got a cut by one of the top experts, with someone else holding the scissors) -- of the other trainees. Their comments were less congratulatory and more technical ("sharp trim", "managed to retain the curl" that kind of comment).
Fun though.
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