The man has only one look for Christ’s sake! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? They’re the same face! Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!
Self-Portrait | Blue Steel with Kiwi Hair Wax | April 10, 2005

Preface: If you haven’t read the previous post [Life After SuperCuts?] already you really should. This one just won’t be as interesting until you do… Assuming of course that it becomes interesting at all…

I have survived Andrea and LUSH. I’ll give you a snapshot of how my Saturday morning went: I took my time getting out of the house in the morning. After all, 9:00 a.m. styling appointments aren’t normally part of my Saturday morning routine. I was a little stressed about what I should wear and how I should prepare. Do I dress up? Are shorts appropriate? It is a fancy spa, not just a salon. Should I shower first? If so, do I shampoo or let them do that? Won’t they shampoo me anyway? Maybe if I shampoo before going, and tell them that I already took care of it than they won’t charge me as much. Maybe they’ll laugh at me for using dandruff shampoo and not the smelly, fruity stuff… These are the thoughts that raced through my brain Saturday morning. I decided to shower – and shampoo – but not tell them… Just in case.

I arrive at LUSH promptly on-time. The woman at the counter directed me to the seating area where I could wait comfortably for my stylist. Complimentary coffee, cappuccino, teas, juice and water were all available for my consumption – though I passed on them all since I was too nervous. What if I procure a cup of coffee and only get to take one sip before Andrea came? Do I just leave it behind? Take it with me? I don’t want to be wasteful… oh gosh, this is all too much. While waiting, I grabbed a free booklet on the large glass coffee table that was titled: How to Get the MOST from your Salon & Spa Visit. I read it feverishly from cover-to-cover. I learned a lot from that little booklet.

Moments later, Andrea approached and introduced herself to me. She was an attractive woman in her 30’s with straight reddish-brown hair. She walked me toward the back of the salon and asked me what “we” were doing today. I looked her in the eye, smiled and said “You tell me.” She said OK and sat me down at the shampooing station and asked another girl to shampoo me. Andrea then said that she’d see me in a few minutes and disappeared. The Shampoo Girl – for lack of a better career title – was much younger (early 20’s I’d guess) and didn’t really seem up for conversation so I had a very quiet shampoo session, save for her initial inquiry of “How’s the temperature?”
“Just fine, thanks.”

Once Shampoo Girl had finished she asked me if she could get me any coffee or cappuccino. I was feeling more relaxed after my second shampoo of the morning and so confidently asked for a cup of coffee. She then asked if I knew where Andrea’s station was. I hadn’t a clue, so Shampoo Girl had to walk me over to her – that was a little embarrassing. I sat down in the comfy leather chair and Andrea asked me again what I was looking for. This is where I recounted my prepared statement (see Friday’s post) and recited – almost word-for-word the reason that I was sitting in her salon chair that very morning. She said that Kate was smart in wanting to convert me from the evil ways of SuperCuts and that she would style my hair and then teach me how to style it myself. The conversation went pretty easily the rest of my time there. Among other things, I discovered that she used to be a professional snowboarder out west with a corporate-sponsorship from Burton Snowboards – until she popped her shoulder out too many times – and that her dream is to be on Couples Fear Factor with her boyfriend – where she is certain she would win the One Million Dollar prize. I believe her.

She asked what I currently put in my hair. I told her gel. She said that I’d be using wax from now on – which Kate was very happy to hear. I’m not a big fan of wax, purely for it’s texture, but it seems to be doing the job. When she finished my hair and finished showing me how to apply the wax myself, she got me my very own container of KIWI wax (shown in picture above) and said that I need to come back in 4-5 weeks for another cut.

The Final Word
I haven’t fully decided how I feel about all this yet. The experience was, of course, very pleasant. From the free food (always a plus!), to the shampoo, to the nice experience I had with Andrea. But do those things all outweigh the convenience, speed and cost-savings of a SuperCuts? Am I willing to be teased and called names like “Metrosexual” now? That’s what I’m still mulling over in my newly stylized and kiwi-smelling head.