I am so fancy. Tonight at 6:00 p.m., my colorist came to my house to touch up my highlights. I have a personal colorist! Who does housecalls! As well as a personal veterinarian! Who does housecalls! What’s next? A personal chef? A maid? Someone whose sole purpose in life is to give me pedicures?
My colorist also gave haircuts to my three boys, so we all look quite dandy.
But here’s the weird thing. Tell me if I am judgmental. You will, won’t you? (Snicker, wink, giggle, hardy-har-har.) I noticed this last time, too. The colorist wears an earphone in one ear and listens to AM radio while working on my hair. Last time, I was puzzled at first, by how quiet she was. Then I realized she was listening to her ear. This time, I again noticed and thought, how rude. Don’t you think it’s rude to be covertly listening to talk radio while you are working on someone’s hair? It would be different if we were both listening to the radio, but for her to listen in her ear? I can hear the buzz of voices and I’m not blind. I could see the ear thingie. (That’s a technical term.)
I thought it was odd. And unprofessional.
However, she charges only $50.00 for a really nice highlight and $10 for each haircut, so who am I, Miss Manners?
While she was here, she commented on my kids’ good behavior and I thought, well, if you were here a little earlier, you, too, could have enjoyed the drama of one kid stealing the computer mouse from another kid and the ensuing attempted strangling.
(Edited to add: The colorist has been doing my hair for five or six years. She’s always been extremely chatty, probably to a fault. This is a new thing, this radio earpiece. In a salon, I prefer a quiet stylist–I like a grocery checker who concentrates on her work, too, without making small-talk–but when someone’s in your home, working on your hair, someone you’ve known for a fairly long time . . . if she’d said, “Hey, do you mind if I listen to the radio in an earpiece?” I would have said, “No problem!”
Would it be all right if your doctor had an earpiece in, listening to talk radio while examining you? Or a chiropractor? Or the manicurist or grocery store checker?)
Actual Unretouched Photo 
How shall we say…EXTREMELY rude!
I will send out The Husband God Gave Me.
He comes to my house (only on weekends) and cuts and colors my hair. He also cuts the children’s hair.
He is free.
Although, I will warn you that he will expect you to sweep up the hair yourself. He makes a big deal out of this.
I hate talk radio. Even if I were to agree with everything they were saying, it still makes me ill. Deep down, I think I hate the fact that there are people out there who think other people give a rip about what they think. To me, talk radio is for those who cannot read blogs.
Oh, how sad I feel for your hairdresser!
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My favorite line of the day
“talk radio is for those who cannot read blogs.” 🙂
Mel,
It is rude, but she does come to your house. What can you say? You could try to be more entertaining that the radio.
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Yeah, definitely rude.
I think the next thing you should persue is a butler. Can’t you imagine saying “Jeeves, after you draw my bath, I’ll have a cup of hot cocoa by the fire you prepare while I’m bathing.” Ah, I could close my eyes and get lost in the fantasy!
Judy – can you send your husband over to MY house? I could use a trim!
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It would be rude if she understood how inappropriate it was. So, it’s probably just very ignorant.
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Oh please, people. Give the woman a break. When she’s doing hair she’s WORKING. If she works better with talk radio on then that’s her particular Zen.
Just because she’s there doing your hair doesn’t mean she has to entertain you with conversation also. If that’s what you want then you should go to a salon and pay $100 for color. Of course, you may end up with a quite sylist who is listening to the store muzak and still not paying any attention to you.
Take this situation for what it is…the glass is half full. Be thankful for what you have.
“Deep down, I think I hate the fact that there are people out there who think other people give a rip about what they think.”
This applies to talk radio but not to blogs and people who comment on blogs? Hmmmm….interesting.
See, I didn’t call anyone judgemental. Hehehehe.
~Elizabeth
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mud jet gland
lament j dug
mental judg
judgmental
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you’d think
I’d remember
that
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My first thought was that she is not good at small talk (which is probably a required class for hair stylists) and this is her way of opting out. She may even be SHY.
Yes, it’s strange, but then so are we all in our ways.
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I’d be happy if my hair person listened to the radio while doing my hair. Nothing against people who want to talk with their hair person, but I always want to read a magazine or just be quiet for a while. That’s probably just me coming from work and the intense interpersonal interactions there.
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Geez, the next thing you’ll post about is how people actually deliver pizza or chinese food to your house.
I think your colorist’s behavior is a little odd. It would be one thing to go to her shop and hear it on a radio, quite another for her to have an earpiece in.
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Wow. That is odd. She should ask if it’s okay. Maybe it’s a passing phase.
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I once stopped going to a hairstylist because she never stopped talking and it was driving me insane.
I sat there one day and it finally dawned on me: “I just do not care about whatever it is she has to say. I don’t want to know. And I am not willing to sit through this anymore even though she does a good job and is affordable.”
I mean, honestly, I would have paid extra for her to mercifully shut her pie-hole. It was exhausting to keep smiling and nodding and pretending I cared.
I guess that makes me a mean person. But it was nice to be able to admit to myself that I did not care about what she was yammering on about. Because I was raised to be more polite than that. But whatever. She was torturing me with inane drivel.
Now I see someone who is very quiet. But she is allergic to perfume, (she has signs posted that say so) so no one is allowed to wear perfume in her shop. Which I think is suspect, since everything she uses in her shop smells and has fumes…
But at least she just cuts my hair and leaves me out of the “my boyfriend is such a loser and I have to get my oil changed soon and take Aunt Siophie for her mammogram on Tuesday…” blather.
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I’d pay extra for a hairdresser who didn’t force me to engage in meaningless small talk when all I really want is for her to fix the mess I made when I was adding a few experimental layers to my hair.
I can’t hear her very well anyway because she has the mother of all accents and she’s usually talking while my head is in the sink or her blowdryer is going or whatever. So I always have to ask her to repeat whatever lame thing I didn’t want to hear in the first place.
I’d say thank your lucky stars. Maybe I’ll show up with a portable radio and earpiece and hand it to my hairdresser the next time I go in. 😉
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I’ve found, on a regular basis, that the more they talk , the worse a hair cut I get.
I don’t know how the radio figures in. Equal distraction? Or as mentioned above, zen moment?
It would depend how my hair came out whether it bothered me or not.
Geez – home-delivered hair cut and home schooling? You never have to leave the house! : )
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