Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Hair Woes: An Update

THANK YOU to all you wonderful, concerned friends who made great suggestions for places where I might get a good haircut in the Boston-metro area. Because I was eager to have this problem fixed sooner rather than later, I took Melissa's suggestion of Twilight Salon, which is conveninetly located near one of the hospital shuttle drop-off points, and which has late hours. I saw Lisa tonight at 7pm and not only did she convince me that she had a vision for my hair and that she was confident that she could cut it, but she was also a stellar conversationalist. Bonus.

I walked out of there with a shorter (admittedly, shorter than anticipated), sassy 'do that I was happy with. It hasn't been washed yet, so tomorrow will be the true test of what it really looks like, and whether or not I will return to Twilight or head to one of the many recommended salons from my previous post when it comes time to cut again. At any rate, I'm appreciative of all of you who took time out of your busy lives to care about my hair woes. I'll try to post about something more interesting soon.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Hair Woes

When I moved to San Francisco I had very short hair, and wanted to grow it out. My friend recommended her hair stylist, a quirky and very detail-oriented woman named Nancy. Nancy eased the transition from this*:


... to this:


... to this:


... to this:


... to this:


... to this:


Each time I visited Nancy, she would take time to examine my hair, comment on how difficult it was to cut and what personality it had, and then get to work re-shaping it from an unflattering helmet-head to a stylish 'do. I trusted her and was never disappointed (except when she'd take hours to do a relatively simple cut, but that's a post for another day).

I had never thought of my hair as "difficult" or "with personality" - it was just straight, blond hair so how difficult could it be!? But after cutting it short and going through millions of awkward stages as it grew long again, I learned that straight hair is trickier than I ever realized.

When I moved to Boston, I knew that finding a replacement for Nancy would be difficult, but I had no idea it would be impossible. I have now lived here for nearly three years, and I have yet to find someone who has cut my hair well enough that I return for a second cut. Maybe I give too much direction. Maybe I don't give enough. I've tried cheap salons and expensive ones, all with the same result: a disappointing hair cut that either requires that I return for a fix (that is still not near perfect, but better than the original cut), or let it grow out in the hopes that the next cut is better.

Today, I got yet another bad haircut and continued the trend. I am not going to return, because I don't have confidence that it can be fixed by the woman who cut it. So now I face the task of finding a hair salon that can take my bad haircut and make it better. I'm not even looking for someone to fix it and make it look good. I'll settle (as I have since I moved here) for a tolerable cut. I've given up on having an easy wash-and-go cut like I've had in the past. That's now a pipe dream. But getting a haircut that doesn't look blocky or stringy or heavy or awkwardly layered seems like it should be an achievable goal, no? A girl can dream...



*For the record, photos above don't show the most awkward of the growing out phases, as I don't have any digital photos of those phases to upload. If anyone has any good spike-y haired photos circa 2002/2003, please send them my way and I'll add them to this post.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Slow Times

There are 27 beds on my unit, and usually we have around 20 that are filled. Last week we had numbers in the mid-teens, and today we had 12. Tomorrow, four of those kiddos are going home or back to the hospitals from which they came, which means that if we have no admissions overnight, we'll be down to eight.

So what I'm saying is things are a little slow at work. 

Things have also been slow outside of work. The cold that I got almost two weeks ago kept me in bed for the first weekend I had it, and then kept me from making social plans that following week so that I could get home and go to bed. Just as the sickness was leaving, it came back for Round II: The Sinus Version, so I've been fighting that for the past few days. 

Highlights of this mostly-uneventful past few weeks include:

- Learning to tie a bow tie. My dad, my uncle, my cousin and I all stood around the computer screen, watching multiple videos on how to tie a bow tie and then practicing on ourselves and each other. My mom and aunt watched with amusement. 

- Cleaning my room. A real top-to-bottom cleaning that included mopping the floor. It makes me happy to come home to a clean room. A simple, inexpensive gift to myself.

- Scheduling a second date. Yes, Good First Date Guy (GFDG) will be making a second appearance in this fair city in the later part of this week for date #2. 


As you can see, there's a reason I haven't posted much lately. Hopefully things will perk up soon.