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.