So, today I go over to the salon at 11:00 AM. I get there and I’m ready to have my hair done. I’m even wearing the outfit I had planned for the day so I could go straight from the salon to down town. I walk up to the door at 11:00 only to find a note saying “Back in 15 minutes.” I am immediately annoyed. But, I decide to wait the 15 minutes maybe she’s just getting a drink or something. She doesn’t come back.

Mildly irritated, I decide to walk down the street to the salon that I thought was only for men. Maybe she’s hanging out there. The barbershop is often blasting calypso music and looks like a lot of fun. I get there and it’s full of people. Five or six men are sitting and laughing together. They could have been waiting to get their hair cut. They could just be hanging out. Really, unless they are getting their hair braided, men could in and out of a barber chair in 15 minutes.

There is actually a woman’s section in the back. If there were five men in the front, there were at least double the women in the back. I ask the guy running the show if I could make an appointment. He stops moving a smoking curling iron through the multi coloured mane in front of him and looks my way. Reaching out to me, he passes his hand through the front of my hair while looking my roots – I think he was checking to see that it was mine. Yes, he touched my hair. But, he is a professional so it’s OK. Motioning over to the row of chairs along side the wall he says, “Take a seat.”

“You can do it today!” I was a little over zealous.
“Yeah, maybe.” He says. Now I’m not waiting in a packed salon for maybe. So I ask if I can just make an appointment.

Agreeing on 9:00 AM Monday morning (thankfully, we are out of the office for most of next week) I leave elated! I am excited. This guy strikes me as a professional. The woman beside him was braiding a scalp while talking hair maintenance – at least I think she was, I don’t speak French.

I head back up the street to my place. Passing the other salon, I notice that the woman still has not returned.

I may have to wait two days for my trim, but at least I know I will get it done.
- posted by Debbie @ 11:55 AM