Tangled

Never trust an Assamese hair stylist.

I specifically told her that I wanted to keep it long. I just wanted her to trim the edges which started looking like overgrown bushes. Just that morning I was admiring how long it’d become. It had taken me two long years for it to grow so much. She acted like she understood me, said ‘umm’ and ‘ah’ and all that. Then she stuck many colored pins in my hair, and started the demolition. Snip snip snip.. it went on and on. Now with my glasses off, I’m half blind and since I was sitting so far from the mirror I couldn’t really see what was going on. Only a blurry shape which looked like it had horns, coz of all those pins stuck in the hair.

After a while, she removed the pins and my still-wet hair fell to my shoulder.. my shoulder!! It was HALF as long as it used to be.. I squealed.. startling her.. I wanted to yell at her, to call her names, make her see the horrible sin she’d committed, and all I could manage was “where’s my hair??” to which she obviously laughed. You know, some people are intimidating customers.. the people who make others really careful in their presence; and the rest of us are a bunch of clowns who nobody is scared of. She wouldn’t have dared to cut all my hair off if I’d belonged to the former set.

But after she blow-dried my tresses, and those exquisite curls landed softly on my shoulders, I could just sit and stare at my reflection. I didn’t hate that woman with a funny name anymore. Yes she’d butchered my long hair, but she’d turned wild tangles into bouncy curls. I was gushing like an idiot thanking her profusely. We even made plans how she’d style my hair when I got married. Ya, I haven’t yet met the guy I’ll marry, but I have a hair-stylist ready.

Have you ever looked into a mirror and felt a truck-load of happiness? Ever been so much in love with yourself that you are bursting with the joy of it? I was suddenly in this place where I loved looking in the mirror, and where previously I saw Shrek, now I saw Fiona (the human one). For the next two days I skipped around, tossing my hair and smiling, and liking that smile.

And then , I shampooed, and lo and behold, my wild tangles were back again, only shorter.