the case of the missing hairdressers and a quandary

Yesterday I called to make appointments. It is time. It has been four months! since my last cut and color, and my hair is a raggedy mess. And, y'all know a fat girl needs to keep herself up. It's not a simple task to look, um, presentable when your body is fluff all over.

So first I called my stylist, Scissorhands, who I have been going to for six years. He recently moved to a brand new beautiful spa-and-salon type place, and when I called, their number was "no longer in service." After a brief moment of panic, I realized I have resources. Resources! So before bothering him by cell phone, I called my resource (who happens to be friends with the husband of one of Scissorhand's salon buddies) to get the scoop. He quickly confirmed my suspicions; the salon had indeed Gone Under. They shut their doors only last weekend.

I decided to postpone making decisions on the hair-cutting and called the salon of my color guy, ColorWonder. Scissorhands and ColorWonder used to work in the same salon, and I started seeing ColorWonder six years ago too. Of course, being Monday, they weren't answering because that's the day they're closed. I left my kind message and shot off an email to ColorWonder just to see if he's in town and available this week.

By this morning I had decided not to call Scissorhands privately for a cut. Scissorhands gave me amazing, bordering on miracle, haircuts. These cuts practically styled themselves. Literally. I could just wash and let dry or blow dry without tools. This is huge for me with my super-fine and super-straight hair. And I got compliments. On my hair, y'all. These compliments were offered out-of-the-blue and not infrequently. This was, and still is, extraordinary to me.

I was one happy girl, believe you me, after all those years of no real style. It was one boring blunt cut after another in the old days. I actually bought the baloney I was being sold, "Don't EVER let anyone give you layers! Your hair is TOO FINE! TOO STRAIGHT!!" I had had a couple of terribly bad, don't-want-to-remember-the-horror, layered cuts so I believed these lines. Oh, how naive I was!

Anyway, over the years, Scissorhand's cuts have slowly become less amazing and downright ordinary. I keep going back, hoping for the fabulousness of yesteryear, but I never get it. Plus, he's an angry, bitter bore who talks my ear off and needs me to agree with his angry, bitter take on everything. And since my hair is at risk, I always do. I actually have several friends who went to him a time or two and loved their styles but wouldn't go back for the sole reason that his repartee borders on torture. But I, if you haven't figured this out already, must be vain, vain, vain because so far I've been willing to sacrifice an hour for a few months of fabulousness. Since that fabulousness has not been meeting my expectations (which Scissorhands himself set so high), I Made The Decision.

I decided that This Is My Chance. This is my chance to try someone new, guilt-free, and see if maybe, just maybe, Scissorhands has lost his touch on this head of hair and there's someone else out there ready to give it pizzazz. To give me pizzazz. It's too soon for him to have called me with new contact info, and I have to get my hair cut, right? So I just go to someone else this time, and if it sucks and I hate it and all that, I can go back to Scissorhands and his magic fingers and grovel for the chic 'dos I took for granted.

But wait! There's more! This morning ColorWonder's salon called me to tell me that he left three months ago. Three months?! Where was my phone call? Email? Note by post? Did you forget about me, ColorWonder? How sad I am. You used to call me just to say "hi" or check up on me and my hair. What happened to the good old days? And why have both of my men disappeared at the same time?! Weird.

In the end, since I hadn't heard back from ColorWonder by email (and, no, I hadn't even tried calling yet since I was still a little offended that he never called to say he left and all), I booked an appointment for cut and color with another guy in his salon who has produced some first-rate looks.

Mere minutes passed before ColorWonder called me. I missed the call, not even knowing it rang, and he left no message. Then this afternoon he emailed me and wants me to come "get done" at his house, where he's in the process of adding on a studio. I'm pleased-as-punch for him and his new endeavor. I've never been unhappy with him or the hair color he gives me. In fact, I've gotten compliments on his work too. But I'm kind of looking forward to going to just one appointment instead of the two I've been shlepping to ever since they parted ways. Not to mention that I always like New And Different. It's almost An Adventure.

Navigating these delicate hairdresser relationships is tough, y'all! If you're one of the few people who stumble across my page, and you've actually read enough of my shallow, self-indulgent ramblings to get to this sentence, how would you handle it? Would you go to the new guy to see if he can Shake Things Up, or would your loyalty get the best of you?