Scissors, knives and other weapons

[ladyofastolat]

I was walking past a hairdressers' the other day, and saw their prices prominently displayed in the window. The cheapest women's haircut was three times the price of the cheapest men's cut. Even the most expensive men's cut was more cheaper than the cheapest women's cut. I realise, of course, that most women have hairstyles that are more complicated and time consuming to produce than most men's hairstyles. However, some men have very fancy hairstyles, and some women have very simple ones. When I was a child, the hairdresser used to cut my hair dry. Then I became a teenager, and suddenly the hairdressers swore blind that it was impossible to cut hair without washing it first, then blowdrying it afterwards. My hair was the same, and the style was the same, but suddenly the hairdressers insisted on all these extra expensive stages. It all seems like a bit of a con.

It was especially annoying since the whole washing thing was riddled with awfulness. I hated the feel of all the extra horrid things they insisted on putting in my hair so much that I had to wash my hair as soon as I got home, to get rid of them. They always used shampoo that I was allergic to - despite me warning them - and then sneered in a disapproving fashion when they noticed that my scalp was all red and irritated. ("Do you use a cheap shampoo?" they'd say, dripping with disdain.) I was paying extra money to get a dose of superior sneering, a dash of allergic reaction, and a whole lot of annoyance.

Which is why I did something rather rash and drastic with scissors.

In other news, I've often chuckled at those lists that reveal how many people each year were hospitalised because of clothing-related accidents, and the like - injured by killer socks etc. Today I was almost one of them. I forgot to pack any skirts or trousers when going to a folk festival last year, so borrowed a skirt from someone else, and rushed out and bought the first trousers I found, which were three-quarter length, with a decorative cord around the hem of each leg, held there by being threaded through a series of little loops. It's always looked a bit traily and messy, but today it almost killed me. I was going downstairs, when the big toe of one foot got caught in the cord of the other leg. I would definitely have fallen headfirst downstairs were it not for the fact that I've got cats. I never used to grip the bannister when going downstairs at home, but too many near-misses involving thundering cats have taught me always to grip onto it for dear life.

The cords have now been removed. The cats have ritually killed them.

Apart from that, I've spent most of the weekend playing Assassin's Creed 2. I killed the pope today, but he was evil, so that's okay.

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I hate hairdressers too. Nowadays I just chop it off with scissors, and frankly that seems to work just as well, be quicker cheaper and generally preferable in every way. I particularly hate the way they always want you to lean back uncomfortably to dangle your head into a bowl. Grrrrr.

Argh to the killer trousers! I was almost slain by a similarly-innocuous small stepladder the other day. I got so unsolvably tangled in it that my only option was to fall forward and do a sort of dramatic roll thing. I do wish there had been someone photographing it, I'm sure it would have looked most dramatic.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I chop it off with scissors, too, but am normally a bit more restrained than today, when about four inches came off in a fit of madness. The more I take off, the harder it is to make it anything remotely approximating even. Not that Pellinor noticed when he came home from LARPingg. When I pointed it out, he said, "It's not very even at the back." "So fix it!" I ordered him, handing him the scissors. Now it's hair by committee, which is probably worse.

[kargicq.livejournal.com]

So reassuring to read there are other, er, "low maintenance" women out there. I seem to have come across a lot of disapproving comments about "poor grooming" recently, which kind of imply that one should somehow be doing something more expensive and elaborate than merely having one's husband cut one's hair straight across at the level of the shoulder-blades every six months or so... - N.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

I remember you almost forcibly taking the scissors away from me when I trimmed my hair at yours several years ago :-) Probably for the best as I was beginning to have the 'table-leg' issue...

Agree with LoA on unfairness of pricing. When I lived with my parents I used to cut my mother's hair (she hates hairdressers with a passion) and since then I have (attempted to) cut both Skordh's and El's hair - I gave my mother a simple bob type thing which was *vastly* easier than the sort of layering your typical man's haircut seems to need.

I admit that these days I do go and get my hair cut and coloured at a fancy salon, but I suspect that my enjoyment of that is largely to do with it seeming a semi-legitimate way to get a couple of hours all to myself! (I went last week for the first time in about 8 months because I just couldn't find the time before that.) And they don't sneer and have a cool massaging chair and give me nice coffee :-) If I didn't enjoy it I certainly wouldn't pay to go, and there have been periods of several years in the past where I have just cut it myself like once a year or less, which having no fringe I can get away with.

[sally_maria]

I've nearly fallen downstairs a couple of times due to the modern fashion for really long trousers, stepping on the bottom of the other leg. Fortunately I've managed to catch myself in time, but it's pretty scary when it happens.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I normally wear cotton batik trousers bought from folk festivals, which are that sort of "one size fits all" that actually means "four inches too long for all normal people." I've several times almost tripped over them. But they're not as bad as the ankle-length skirts that I wear. If you crouch down and manage to stand on your skirt before standing up again, you not only fall over, but your skirt tends to come off, too. This is quite embarrassing when it happens in front of a building site when you're getting up after slipping on the ice.

[sally_maria]

I used to have a uniform work skirt that was like that - just an elasticated waist as well, so it didn't take much for it to start descending. Still, it was an improvement on the coat dresses we had before that, which were so straight that kneeling in them made the bottom button pop off.

Women are expected to wear the most ridiculous clothes sometimes...

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I don't think women are supposed to do such a thing as crouch or kneel, but are presumably supposed to sit there like delicate little flowers with their knees together and their hands demured clasped. I'm forever ruining tights by crouching in them. My tights never live long enough to ladder; they always rip at the top long before that.

[sally_maria]

I suspect you're right about the delicate little flower thing, but it was a particularly ridiculous uniform for a shop-assistant, who might at any time find herself lifting a box of flat-packed furniture or other heavy item off the floor, or climbing into a display window at least two foot up in the air. :-)

Don't talk to me about tights - not being the lady-like type, I almost invariably put my fingers through them when pulling them on. At least my current uniform has trousers, so I can carry on wearing the holey ones, until they give up completely.

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

Benedict XVI wants killing, he's so evil and closeminded. Go ahead, for my druthers!

I think in the US such practices re haircuts have been ruled sexist and unfair, and things are different. They still wash & dry your hair. I'm sensitive to rosemary oil, peppermint anything, and tea tree/Eucalyptus. Rosemary & peppermint burn my scalp, the others make me vomit from the smell.
I'd be tempted to bring my own products!

You can still go to expensive salons, where the haircare is PRICEY! I got tired of having my ends snipped, not 1" but 4" or more, and my hair is growing even slower, if possible, than it was before. 4" was 2 yrs growth, not 2 months.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I only killed Alexander VI. Sorry! :-)

[clarienne.livejournal.com]

It is a swiz. I go to a very cheap small hairdressers. I've not found any improvement when going to an expensive one. Except that my hairdresser knows all her customers by name - and natters a lot. She says she wants to quit hair and be a counsellor, but mostly talks about her own problems while I go 'mmm' :D

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Why quit? Counselling + hairdressing sounds a great combo! It's just that no one's thought of charging for it till now.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Cheap and local is the way to go. There is one in our village who does a good dry cut and has the sense not to cut off too much. As she put it- she learned VERY early on in her career not to cut too much off long hair!

As for the shampoo issue- well I've taken my own along in the past as I've got so many problems with virtually every brand commercially available.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I suppose I ought to track down a small cheap hairdressers one day, and get my hair properly cut. When I was a student, I used to use a nice little place in my parents' home town, where the target clientele was obviously unfashionable old ladies, and the staff were little different. When I moved to the island, the only places I could find were staffed entirely by trendy young things who exuded sneeriness as soon as I walked in.

[rubygirl29.livejournal.com]

I have unfortunate hair, so I don't dare attack it myself with scissors. I have a lovely hairdresser who does a good job, listens to me when I tell her not to use certain products and understands my hair. Her name begins with a K. I have had three hairdressers who cut my hair the way I liked it ... and their names all began with K. So, if I have to change hairdressers again, I will be doomed to calling around salons and asking if they have somebody on the staff whose name begins with K.

My worst trip down the stairs happened when I was carting a load of sheets to the laundry room. I got tangled up in them, did a melodramatic head over heels fall, ended up with broken glasses, a black eye, and a sprained wrist. I was able to milk a lot of sympathy out of that one ...

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Oh well. At least you had lots of sheets on hand that you could use to tear up into bandages, or else to wrap yourself in if the trauma made you take to your bed. ;-)

[squonk79.livejournal.com]

Gah, hairdressers, hate them. I particularly object t the hair washing because my hairdressers always seem to have really long nails that they try to saw my ears off with. And i get to pay £27 for the privilege. Boyfy pays £8.

The one i had as a kid used to grill my mother about what shampoo we used and no matter what she said, the hardresser would turn her nose up and insist the only good shampoo was the one the salon sold. Then we found out from another hairdresser at the salon that our hairdresser never took shampoo on holiday and always used whatever was in the hotel because "it's all just shampoo"

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Eek, yes. The nails! I could never work out if the violent gouging of the scalp was considered an essential part of hair washing, and something that they expected me to do myself when washing my own hair, or if they had some sadistic game going to see how much agony they could inflict on customers without them objecting.

[segh.livejournal.com]

The best haircut I ever had was in Hong Kong and cost the equivalent of £4.50. It was unaccompanied by chatter as we didn't have a common language; I indicated my requirements by pointing at the price board and the length I wanted by making scissor gestures at my hair. She cut it dry, and did a fabulous job.
Unfortunately the cost of a return flight does put this solution out of court.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

There was a "Mad" cartoon, ooh, many years ago now, of a barbers with three seats. Each had a label above it; they said something like:
"Sports cars and foreign holidays"
"Pubs, beer and films"
"A restrained hello, followed by silence"

[clarienne.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

And I've just found a Punch cartoon, from early WWII. Five seats at the barber's, each with a label above them:
- Military Strategy
- War Aims
- Invasion Chances
- War Economy
- ? America