At some point in the past year my head started out bald. This was a situation that came about because of a thyroid medication that made my hair very brittle and each strand broke in half if you bent or touched it. Eventually i ended up looking like gollum from LOTR and i just had sports clips shave the remainder of it off. I wore scarves for a while but they were not very comfortable. After that i wore these cloth lined hats that resembled something from the flapper girl days. Some thought they were cute. Some demanded to see my hair and didnt like the hats. I was going to wear them no matter the feedback because i was not comfortable with the state of my hair and i preferred the look of the hats. Well, nearly a year later im on different thyroid meds and the hair has finally grown back enough to cut it into something somewhat presentable and table the hats for now. The problem was that the back of the hair was starting to resemble a mullet and i needed someone to just snip up the back a bit so i could take off the hats. The non-boutique non-uber expensive hair cutting places were either in kerrville, san antonio, or center point. I worked in fredericksburg. I was so frustrated driving around looking for barbers that closed down 3 years ago and never dismantled their website, trying to call and see if the only place in town could fit me in on a short work day when they had left then phone off the hook for an hour to avoid telemarketers, and picking the wrong option so that when that didnt pan out, driving to san antonio or kerrville would add over an hour of commute to my day even though they’d have generic hair-cutting places that accepted walk ins. My work schedule was not set daily so i never knew when id have time so making an appointment was complicated. I was feeling rather defeated, talking to my best friend, when she said, “i have fabric scissors. Do you want to just come over here and i’ll cut your hair in the kitchen?” I said “yes!” So we traded. She cut my hair over a paper towel in the kitchen with fabric scissors and i pinned her pioneer dress while she stood on the kitchen island so she could sew it and wear it on heritage day in the historic park. I think she did pretty good. We shaved-up my neck with a “lady razor” after her husband said no to using the electric razor he trims his side burns with. I can respect that. A man’s stuff is his stuff. And the plastic lady razors are cheap and disposable. It was a good idea. So is it a world renowned work of art? Probably not. But it was even and shaped and i thought the back looked cute and it gave me the confidence to take off the hats and go to work. I’ll always know that it was my best friend who cut the back of my hair in her kitchen that gave me the ability to take the hats off after almost a year of wearing them and go to work bare headed for the first time. I’m growing it out now and sports clips has cut the back along the way a few more times. Hopefully one day its really long again. You just have to take life as life gives it and make the best of whatever situation you’re in. But my best friend gave me a really positive re-entrance to the world of having hair. Everyone loved her handiwork. I’ll always remember her kindness and the time and effort she spent shaping the back of my hair in her kitchen after work that day. And she looked amazing in the pioneer dress on heritage day. We both have adhd so her trying to hold still on the kitchen island and me trying to focus to pin each side evenly was somewhat comical but in the end we got it done.
