Although I've been living in Pasadena for over two years, I still see my Westside hair stylists. (Yes, I said stylists, plural. One person does my highlights, and the other trims my locks. Which did not feel high maintenance when I was single, but lately, it feels like my hair needs to be less of a diva).
Anyway, my stylists. They are both at salons in Brentwood, and the drive between Pasadena and Brentwood should take about thirty minutes. But lately, due to some freeway construction projects, it takes more like an hour. That's an hour there, an hour back, plus some buffer time for parking (because parking in Brentwood is beyond awful).
I don't think I can do it anymore. I tried to break up with my stylists once and visited a nice salon in Pasadena ... and got the worst haircut of my life. It's like the stylist was feeling malicious and wanted to make my hair as unmanageable as possible. After that, I was spooked and ran back to Brentwood.
But I can't handle the long drives anymore, when there are a hundred hair salons within a ten mile radius of my house. Surely there is someone capable of grooming my locks in my adopted city. Right??
It's just my hair... but then again, it's my hair. If someone botches my haircut, I can just wear it back in a ponytail, which I pretty much do everyday anyway. But what if someone destroys my hair? What if they scorch my locks and give me a bald spot? Or what if the stylist has a nervous breakdown and gives me a mohawk? A ponytail cannot cure a mohawk.
Finding a new hair stylist is scarier than falling in love. If you go on a bad first date, at least you have a good story. But if you get a bad first haircut, the consequences could take YEARS to fix. (I know this personally from the Great Bangs Debacle of 1998).
