![\"\"](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2009\/07\/04\/opinion\/04oped950.jpg\" "\\"Hair-Portraits")
<\/a>Hair-Portraits of First Ladies by Christina Christoforou, NYTimes<\/p><\/div>\n
Red flag: I called at 10am and was able to get an appointment at noon.<\/p>\n
Red flag ignored.<\/p>\n
Red flag: I arrive at the salon and don’t have to wait for my stylist to finish up with someone else.<\/p>\n
Red flag ignored.<\/p>\n
Red flag: Stylist may or may not still be in high school.<\/p>\n
Red flag deliberately ignored because of my own age-bias experiences – topic for another time.<\/p>\n
Haircut commences and proceeds through the standard phases: (1) initial wash and chat, (2) comb out and realization that you have no common topics to talk about, (3) cut and dig for any question to break the awkward silence, and (4) amazingly long dry and fluff where at least the hairdryer noise fills the void of conversation.<\/p>\n
When it was all over, I ventured a look, fully expecting that I would look weird today but after two days of growth things would fall into place.\u00a0 To my surprise, I looked good! Pleased and proud of myself for making it this far, I stepped out from under the cape, through the weight I’d shed on the floor, and up to the counter to pay.\u00a0 Now, I didn’t ask the cost of a cut beforehand, and would not have blinked if she told me it was anything up to $70.\u00a0 I would have been pleasantly surprised at $45.\u00a0 Are you ready?<\/p>\n
Twenty-three dollars.<\/p>\n
Go ahead and read it again.<\/p>\n
I had to jut my chin out to hear her say it twice, and then left her with just about a 50%\u00a0 tip as it just didn’t feel like I’d paid enough. The experience left me feeling good about the Midwest, but wondering who was actually innovating (the salon name was, in fact, Innovations) on the haircut experience.\u00a0 I recalled a piece in a couple years old Metropolis<\/a> magazine about a place called Rudy’s<\/a> that I’ve always wanted to try.\u00a0 Admittedly, the only reason I remember this article is that the magazine has sat in the bathroom that my sister and I used to share at my parents house for the last few years.\u00a0 If we aren’t home and visiting, nobody uses that bathroom, so the reading material rarely rotates.\u00a0 The well-read Metropolis and the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy hold court.<\/p>\n