Not fictional like a unicorn

My hair stylist is in Andover. I have moved many, many times in the past 5 years. 6 official moves and 3 transient moves. Dear God. In 5 years. That is a lot. In all fairness, the moves were prompted by life quakes that were out of my control. One was initiated by a creepy neighbor in my complex; others by career moves. In or around the late winter or spring of 2006 I found my hair stylist. At Karrin's Salon. Now known as Kalla Lily, but my stylist has moved on. When I found her I must have lived in Mounds View, but worked in the Anoka area, where her salon was. Her father was a partner in the company I worked for; wanting to support a newer woman in the work force and a daughter of a partner in my company, I visited her.

Some people don't appreciate the perfect hair stylist for their hair. To some people hair is hair and a scissors can be maneuvered by anyone who can swivel a chair and frames a license from the department of commerce near the mirror and above the hot hair appliances (i.e., the curling iron, flat iron, and the smoking hair dryer...)

But I have found The One. Not "The One" as in married, children, white picket fence, two cats in the yard, (which may just be about as fictional as a unicorn), but The One. The One who can manage my hair. It is an amazing feat. She can cut it and style it and make it look nice. The trick is that the cut has to stay nice. The cut has to work with my hair. Many stylists can't figure it out. I have thick, wavy, heavy hair that needs just the right touch to stay tolerable for me to carry it for the next 6 - 9 weeks.

I sit in the swivel chair, cloaked in the black cape, and she stands behind me, a comb in her left hand and the shears in her right. Kind of similar to a noon-time show down. The street clears. The double doors swing, one hinge creaking in the silence of the dust blown cowboy town. Spurs sparkling in the sunshine, armed with tools for shaping, thinning, straightening and shining in the loops of her apron. She always wins the draw. My hair becomes limp and lets her do her magic. (It is magic. No one else can do it.)

In high school, I remember a teacher being interrogated because she got her hair cut in Coon Rapids. Being a high school student in Lakeville, Coon Rapids sounded a billion miles away (it kind of is) and like a completely different world (it really is). The kids were baffled by her dedication to a stylist. She drove. All the way. To Coon Rapids. She worked in Lakeville and lived in Woodbury. Coon Rapids did not seem convenient.

When it comes to hair, it is simply not about convenience. You find The One and you don’t let her or him go. Change is scary. Especially when it means giving the power of controlling a definition of you (yes, let’s face it, people do judge you by your hair and therefore makes your hair cut defining.)

I tried the convenience route. I did. With 6 moves in 5 years, you kind of start to think you should do things convenient as possible. I tried stylists in St. Cloud. Twice. And went back to The One. Tried two different stylists in the southern suburbs when I lived there and still, thinking I should be paying for convenience rather than perfection, tried two different stylists downtown. They each got three strikes and were out. I hung my head, tuck my hair under my hat, and returned to The One.

And I am so much happier now. She understands my hair and she knows what I want. She gets it. She has since relocated from her Anoka salon to an Andover salon. My past two appointments have been at 8:00 PM after a yoga class. I drive heavy-lidded, but faithfully, 38 miles to see her. 8:30 – 9:00 is usually my bedtime, but needing to see her and avoiding traffic was necessary. So I got in when I could get in. Of course, convenience has tempted me now and then. I will admit, as I am driving up Highway 242 I think about how nice it would be to just walk to a salon in Uptown or skip through the skyway to a spa after work sometime…

But. I will not waiver. The easy way out is not always the best way. I will not cheat. Not when I have found The One. My perfect hair stylist. (Let me know if you want her number. I am not greedy. I will share the hair happiness.)