Hair

When I was a little girl, I was in LOVE with a book called "The Hair Book." My Dad had it in the back room of his salon, Best Impressions, the place where I spent countless hours of my childhood. Yes, my Dad is a hairdresser, so is my Mom. Growing up in a salon made for an interesting childhood, an even more interesting adolescence and if I'm being perfectly honest, it still impacts my perceptions of beauty, vanity, style and goes even so far as to make conclusions about how you feel about yourself.

You may be able to tell that over the years I have spent a chunk of time analyzing this experience of growing up in a service industry which is based on how you look. Spending so much time in front of mirrors during your awkward stages of life is bound to have an impact! But let me share with you what I loved about this unique growing up experience.

My Dad had a crew of regular clients, these woman came weekly for their standing appointments and watched me grow up...they became like family. When I was younger, I brought them coffee made to order & I would walk around with a pad of paper and pen and ask for autographs. I always wanted to be up front, near the cash register where I could pretend to be the shop owner and take money, but when I got too loud & obnoxious, my Dad would come & get me and without saying a word he would pinch & twist my upper arm and lead me all the way to the back room where I would have my "timeout" (although my folks never called it that.) I always had a crew of folks to buy whatever I was selling for band and when I got a little older, (following in my cousin Corey's footsteps) my Dad hired me to work for pay. On Saturdays (his busiest day) I made $20, I emptied trash, cleaned brushes, answered the phone, took out rollers, brought coffee, picked up lunch, made appointments & took money. I know it's these experiences working at Best Impressions that helped give me a strong work ethic & to enjoy the company of people, people of all ages.

I also had the latest hair style! I was getting my hair permed and highlighted before I was out of elementary school! I had it all, asymmetrical hair, big hair, short hair, bangs, no bangs, blonde, brown, red, extensions, the list goes on, just like the characters in The Hair Book!

So I just had my first Thai salon experience with Franck at fan fan salon in Bangkok. (Thanks Nadia for the recommendation!) Franck is actually French and comes to Bangkok via Hong Kong via Sydney via Casablanca and he was amazing! After my consultation with him (I needed to fix my color because I had tried to do it myself and actually made my hair orangish, yuck!) where we discussed color & cut, a small army of Thai folks started the services. I had 3 people putting the color on! I kept thinking about how Dad has done this by himself for 40 plus years! One person held my hair in place, one person prepared the foils and the 3rd person painted the color on my hair. A different person washed my hair, then Franck made his entrance and in a flurry of activity he sculpted my hair, a different person blew it dry, Franck returned to style it & put the finishing touches on & I loved it! I couldn't wait to share this experience with my folks.

It's amazing how good you feel after getting a new do! New country, new job, new life, time for a new hair do!