Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Yes, I Had Her When I Was Twelve & Three-Quarters

You know those tiny moments in time when you have a chance to correct a misconception that someone has and you choose to let it go? Those moments that are sometimes inconsequential but occasionally spiral into something so big you can't possibly go back and correct the misinformation without making someone feel really, really stupid? I had one this weekend.

Ali and I decided to go to get haircuts. I had an appointment with the woman who has cut my hair about three times. She was going to just see if anyone could cut her hair as a walk-in. We were seated across the salon from each other.

The woman cutting my hair made an assumption that Ali was my daughter. I'm not a big talker in the salon. I just like getting my hair cut and getting out of there. When she said, "It looks like Anna was able to fit your daughter into her schedule," I made the fated decision not to correct her.

It went downhill from there.

"You have the most gorgeous natural curls! You know how kids are. . .I bet your daughter says all the time she's glad she didn't get your hair! Anything not to be like their mom!"

a slow nod from me, not knowing what to say

"Does your daughter's hair have any body at all?? How could she not get some of your curls??"

well. . .it's pretty straight all right. . .

{as she was trimming up the hair on my neck} "Do you think you could get your daughter to trim this up once a week for you?"

sure. . .she's usually in the bathroom with me when I'm doing my hair. . .

And then the real kicker {as I was writing a check for both of our cuts} "Ali, how old are you? We have a family discount!"

I don't think that's the kind of family she was talking about though. . . sigh

2 comments:

Ami said...

I think they totally should have given you the family discount.

And I'm guessing you were trying to spare her feelings by not correcting her in the first place... hoping to avoid embarrassment for her. Which is very polite.

One of those smack the forehead moments for her if you'd said something...

Anonymous said...

and did you both make appointments for next month?

alleml isn't a word in my vocabulary...wtf? glad I don't have to use that in a sentence!