Hair past and present..

Mark, my hairdresser has moved to a new salon.  This has now happened a number of times and each time I follow him to wherever he has moved.  The new salon is very swish, all smoke and mirrors and is in a trendy, young part of town.  As I walked there this morning I looked around at all the cafes (no global chains here), the vintage furniture 'emporiums' and design shops and marvelled at how similar all these are.  It doesn't seem to matter whether I'm in the Mitte in Berlin, Soho or Chelsea in New York or Clerkenwell in London, there is a design vernacular used that is remarkably similar in all the up and coming cities of the world.  I find this somewhat disappointing and a bit boring.

It used to be an adventure to head into town.  I would give myself extra time either before or after the hairdressers to explore and perhaps turn up a new little gem of a shop or restaurant. More and more now I find myself going directly to the hairdressers and straight home when I'm finished.  After all, even vintage furniture and interior shops get repetitious when they're all stocked with a seemingly endless supply of Eames chairs, Saarinen tables and Poole pottery.  Surely the reason these things are of some value is that there are limited numbers, but no, they are everywhere.

Today I also left an extra hour to explore Clerkenwell, the location of my hairdresser now. I walked, looked, saw lots of cafes decorated with old over-stuffed sofas (how 1990's!) selling 20 over-priced variations on coffee and a number of small craftsmen studios.  The crafts people made me happy.  There was a bit of variety there though because the area has become so stylish, the crafts people now charge Cartier prices!  I did come across a tiny little place, with no name over the door, that had a few interesting bits of furniture and old prints.  Turned out to be a cafe/vintage store and as there was no one there, I sat with the owner and chatted while we had coffee together.  What a nice little London interlude.  We exchanged a bit of work history, political discussion, design information and generally spent a delightful half hour in the company of strangers.  I guess I am a New Yorker at heart and do strike up these little conversations with anyone willing to listen.

Anyway, as I said at the start of this, Mark has moved.  He has been my hairdresser for about 20 years.  This man has known me through many crises, through the trials and tribulations of my children growing up and leaving home and he has been my almost friend for that long.  We are totally relaxed in each others presence.  Yet, he never really crosses the line from professionalism to over-familiarity.  I have great respect for this quality in him, not to mention that he cuts hair sublimely. He was the hairdresser who saw me through my misguided attempt to let my hair grow longer until he could no longer bite his tongue and asked me, no, begged me, to cut it short again.  He advised me not to let my hair go grey, since he says that it's not grey enough yet, bless him.

Having known someone for so long makes going to the hairdresser a really relaxed affair.  I don't have to explain anything.  He looks at the shape of my face, assesses how much weight I have lost or gained, and cuts my hair accordingly.  He also trusts my little comments about taking a tiny smidget more off here or thinning it out a bit there and today, when I mentioned that the front of my hair was a bit heavy, he completely understood when I suggested it looked a bit 'Hitleresque'! Especially when I put a comb under my nose and demonstrated the full moustache effect! I am always happy with my hair when I leave and feel like I've spent an hour sharing chat and smiling.

My life is becoming simpler and simpler.  Small things make me happy.  Finding beautiful raspberries in the local shops, having a good haircut, my husband coming home before 5 pm.  All these things happened today and tomorrow I get to chant along with Krishna Das.  All in all, it's a pretty good life and the days are still getting longer!