The Haircut Appointment

There’s the cost/benefit concept that I constantly apply to help manage my time - so much so that I used it unconsciously yesterday to decide between taking a leak and waiting for my prints. Yea, I actually quantified the benefit of that and that’s exactly why I hate waiting in lines for long periods because I’m continuously calculating the losses sustained during that time.

But the three hour wait on Saturday last was not a problem, not really. The thing is that the girl that cuts my hair works out of her living room and that’s brilliant cos’ it means that her kids are there with her: a very sociable six-year-old boy that operates my cell phone a lot better than I ever really cared to, and an adorable bright-eyed baby girl that happened on this occasion to be snapping out the plastic clips of coloured hair samples from a catalog she somehow managed to get hold of. And I was on the floor playing with her whilst trying to gather the bits and pieces to put it all back together when her brother came up to me with a spray bottle and a comb. He was determined to style my hair and I had no choice in the matter.

He sprayed for a bit and it was only after the other customers gasped did I realize that my hair was wet enough to apply shampoo. At that point he started to comb it out and at the end of it all my hair was in exactly the state that I swore to myself to never show off in public. “That will be ten dollars” he said proudly, and playing along I picked out a single dollar from my wallet. Never before did I get a “wtf” expression from a six-year-old, at least not to my knowledge. Didn’t feel too bright just then - I was staring back at him in stunned stupidity for several seconds before handing over a five dollar bill, and there was a strange sense of relief when he eventually did accept it. The entire situation was so comical and I needed that change of pace especially after a difficult past few months.

How's that for cost/benefit?