Haircut.

Much like the blog's title implies, I got a haircut today.

I walked on over to the nearby Great Clips, over on University and Milton by the Flame Broiler, and asked for a haircut. The lady took down my name (Jeoff, apparently) and phone number, and told me it would be a few minutes. I took a seat and picked up a copy of Ebony magazine. Fantastic read.

A few minutes later, my name was called. I stepped on over to a nearby chair when the lady asked, "how do you want it?"

"Oh, you know," I said, "like, a 3 on the sides and back, and about an inch on top."

"Would you like the back rounded or squared?"

"Um... could you make the corners round, and the bottom straight?"

So she began to work, but something was odd. She had sat me facing one of the flag things that separate each chair. Strange, I thought, I wonder if she's going to face me towards the mirror?

But she didn't she just kept on cutting, Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" playing on the radio.

"Oh, you know, I haven't heard this song in a long time," came the voice of one of the ladies cutting hair across the room. "Do you ever hear a song that makes you thing of a certain time?"

"What, like, 'oh, this song makes me thing of 2:00' or something?" came the... rather annoying voice of another lady cutting hair next to her.

"No, silly, like a certain time in your life!"

Then I realized something. The woman cutting my hair hadn't said a word since she started cutting. I started paying attention to what she was doing. Each cut she made was so precise, as if she planned out which hairs she was going to cut with each snip.

Fergie's ranting came to an end, and The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love" came on. I just sat and listened while my barber worked on. It was really refreshing to just relax while this woman chopped away the hair i had so painstakingly grown myself. I let myself sit there and listened to the radio.

"Look down."

The first words she had said to me since she started, coming forth at the end of Sophie Hawkins "As I Lay Me Down". I complied, and she recommenced cutting. OneRepublic's "Stop and Stare" came on, and I began listening to the other women cutting hair. I realized how nice it was not having a conversation during my haircut. Don't get me wrong, I love conversing, and it's always nice to have a pleasant conversation with someone who's just trying to get through the day at their work. However, it was nice to be free from questions like "what do you do?" and "how are things going?", both of which require more than just a sentence or two and usually need concentration to really listen. This may make me an ass, but I'd much rather they be focused on cutting my hair. I wouldn't want to go into a restaurant and have the chef talking to me instead of making my food, that's what they're getting paid to do. And I'm sure your life is frustrating, but I really don't want to hear about the Vegas trip you took with your "wild" sister.

I just felt like she actually cared about my hair. That, sure, this is just her job, but it was a job she wanted to do well. I felt like I didn't have to care about what it was going to look like, that it would turn out great. I could just sit back and let her take care of it, while I waded through thoughts of everything I had to get done before this school year was over. She was relieving me of worry and stress that I really didn't need right then.

It wasn't until the end of "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall that I realized I had been sitting in silence for 5 whole songs while this woman was cutting my hair. Just as the Counting Crows' "Mr. Jones" started, she turned me toward the mirror for the first time. I was greeted with one of the best haircuts I've ever had. She brushed me off, took me over to the register, and I paid.

"Thank you," she said.

"No, thank you," I replied.

Biggest tip I've ever left for a haircut.