2020-01-18 - Short Hair, Don't Care

It is the middle of January and... It. Is. Freaking. Cold. The sky is clear and icy blue, the snow lay on the ground, ice dangerously hiding in the clear open on sidewalks. It's sometime around noon and Nicole is on shift at the salon. This time of year is slower; typically. The rush of Holiday 'dos' needing done has passed, hair is hidden under hats for warmth, and preparation for the warmer months has not yet begun. They'll have a small rush before Valentine's day, but, until then...

Anyway, Nicole is the sole hairdresser in the salon this afternoon. She has an appointment soon though, and while waiting for her friend to arrive, she sits in her own salon chair, browsing websites and taking notes in a notebook balanced on her thigh. She's dressed for work; hair immaculate and left down in long, luscious honey waves, black sheer button up blouse over a black tank and long, tailored, wide-legged trousers that make the tall woman look even taller. A pair of ankle boots with high but thick heels adorn her feet. Overhead, soft indie pop music plays.

Right at 12:30pm, a long haired brunette arrives at the salon to see Nicole, dressed in dark blue skinny jeans and a cashmere pink sweater, all under a black peacoat, something quite new for Stephanie as a look. Her hair is a high ponytail, her eyes seem a little tired, but she has a smile on her face. "Hey, Nicole," she greeted her friend and hairstylist as she walked in, "Been looking forward to this for a while now. I'm so ready to just cut it all off!"

"Stephanie!" Nicole says with a smile, rising up from her seat and crossing to the reception desk. "Right on time, as always." She sets the tablet down and marks off something in her appointment book. The new system won't go in until after renovations. "So... what is the mystery behind this new you? Change of style, changing your hair... what gives?" She gestures to hooks on a wall, silently inviting Stephanie to hang up her coat. "Come on back when you are ready." Back isn't far away, just pass the four hairdressing stations to where the sink stations are. When Nicole gets there, she opens a cabinet overhead and starts pulling out her supplies; towel, gauze, apron; and sets them on the shelf just above the sink beside the shampoos and conditioners.

When Nicole greets her and starts to wonder about her new look, Stephanie replies as she hangs up her coat, "It's part of my New Year's Resolution, to reinvent myself. Thought I would ask for your help with the physical aspect since you're a professional." She walks over to where Nicole was waiting and gets settled in.

"A good resolution to have, sometimes. I approve of looks changing up from time to time." Nicole looks down at Stephanie now as she sits in the chair. "Ready for everyone's favorite part of getting their hair done?" The hair washing. it's the hair washing. Everyone loves it. Someone else's fingers in your hair, massaging your scalp while you get to lay back and relax. "So is it just style you are reinventing? What other changes have you made or are making? Did you get a whole new wardrobe?"

"Yeah," Steph told Nicole with a smile. And she allowed herself to relax for a while, letting her focus be on the conversation with Nicole. "I mean style is a big part of it. I've picked up my ukulele again. I started being more social again. It's all about just putting myself out there." She pauses before asking, "How are you, Nic? How's life going for you?"

Nicole tips Stephanie's chair back, pulling the long hair into the sink and off the woman's neck. She first puts a strip of thick cotton gauze around her neck, then flaps open a black polyester apron and lets it fall slowly, settling over Stephanie. Snapping the collar around her neck, Nicole smiles. "Oh, life is fabulous for me, right now. Honestly, can't complain about much. I know how hard it is to put yourself out there again though. I hermitted for a couple years, other than work, before people started dragging me out." She turns the water on but waits for it to warm up and get to the right temperature; not too hot, not too cold; before starting to get Stephanie's hair wet.

"Yeah well, when even your broody male coworker starts dating, it might be a sign that it's time to step up the social game," Steph says with a sigh as Nicole starts to massage her scalp. It's difficult not to feel relaxed when Nicole starts doing her thing. She's pretty fantastic. "It's been feeling like everyone's pairing up lately and I guess this whole reinvention thing is just my way of coping with that. I mean, gotta focus on me. No one else will right now."

"Oh, who is your broody coworker? There are a lot of men in this town that fall into that category," Nicole says with a small chuckle. With Stephanie's hair sufficiently soaked, Nicole puts some shampoo into her hand, working it into a light lather before she starts in on the hair again. Massaging the suds into Stephanie's scalp. "Focusing on you is the most important thing, really. Having a partner can be great, but if you can't be good company with yourself, how can you expect to be good company for them? Or something. Plus... unless you get attached at the hip, you won't be with them all the time. I support your reinventions. Are you going to do color too? Or just the cut?"

"Well, broody paramedic, so that narrows it down a little. Devlin McCloud, he's from out of town, his cousin Hera owns the art gallery." Stephanie lets a smile dance across her features at Nicole's show of support. She considers the question and replies, "The cut's good for now, besides, I'm still me, we don't wanna go too crazy." She lets out a playful chuckle.

"Oh, I don't know him," Nicole says as her fingers work Stephanie's hair into a bubbly, coconut smelling lather. "I met Hera though. She seemed nice. I liked the butterfly thing, even if at first I was really wary of what it was. Comes with living here too long I guess." Laughing, Nicole shakes her head and brings up the wand to start rinsing the hair next. "You would still be you with pink hair, or blue, or purple, even blonde."

"Yeah, well growing up here has had its interesting moments, that's for sure. I've been dealing with ... weird stuff at work lately." Steph shares with Nicole, before she says, "I mean, it's not even that, I thin it's more of just a comfort zone thing right now. The length is a huge change already."

"Work is one spot I haven't had to deal with weird things at..." chuffs Nicole. "Ah, I get that. Like that favorite soft old sweater that you keep even after you've purged your closet. it might be full of holes and faded, but wearing it at night while watching netflix and eating ice cream is awesome." Pause. "What's been happening at work?"

"Had a really weird call last week at the Sycamore Apartments, strange death. You wouldn't believe it unless you were there to see it." Stephanie sighs. "I hang on to what's comfortable way longer than I should. This is actually really challenging for me to do. This haircut, I mean. I'm glad you're doing one doing it."

"Wasn't a corpse with skin peeling set on fire or anything.... was it?" Nicole asks as she begins to squeeze water out of Stephanie's hair, preparing it for conditioner. "So how short are we talking? Buzzcut?" She grins, clearly teasing.

"Not quite. More like, a dead body with the fingernails ripped out and no blood in sight," Steph replies, "And I think I'd like to cut it into a bob, right below my chin..."

Nicole bites her lip, hands pausing in Stephanie's hair. "Sounds like.. torture? Someone being tortured for answers and accidentally killed... somewhere else, then dumped wherever it was found?" She's watched a few movies. "Did Yule see to it?" Nodding, she then puts her hand to the side of Stephanie's neck, about midway between shoulder and ear. "Here?"

"I don't really know..." Stephanie admitted, but then when Nicole suggests the length for her cut, she smiles. "Yeah, I can go for that. Let's do it!"

"Okay. I'll cut it a bit longer, because with your waves, it will spring up a lot. So if you miss the length, just take a shower." Nicole smiles and piles up Stephanie's hair on her head, still full of conditioner. "You can sit up for a minute or two while that sinks in, then we will rinse. So... was that the weirdest call you were ever on?"

"The weirdest one I can recall in recent times. I mean, with things being as weird as they are here, I wouldn't be surprised at the things I might have blocked out." Smiling, Stephanie adds, "I'm so glad I have you. I don't think I would have done this with anyone else. You're such a pro."

Nicole smiles down at Stephanie then taps the sink, indicating she should relax back again. She tests the water on her wrist again before rinsing the conditioner out. "I try to be. This place means everything to me. Do you get weird dreams too?"

"Yeah, I do, sometimes..." Stephanie tells Nicole as she follows instructions and allows her hair to be rinsed. "It depends on what's been going on. Sometimes I get them when I'm stressed or upset."

Wrapping up Stephanie's hair in a towel after it is rinsed and wrung, Nicole piles that all up on her head, but holds it in place. "Go ahead and stand up and we'll head over to my station." Hers is the one with plants and a framed comic drawn picture of her as the Hair Fairy by it. "I get weird ones too. But like, there's weird, then there's weird sometimes. So... " She follows behind Stephanie, expertly making sure the hair doesn't fall out of the towel nor the towel fall. "What is your favorite new outfit you bought?"

"Hmmm...I have this really nice flattering little black dress I picked up as an impulse buy that's really nice, even though I really don't have a place to wear it at." She stands and follows Nicole to her station. "I also have a nice rainbow polka dot v neck sweater that's really fun."

As Stephanie gets settled, Nicole starts to lightly towel dry her hair while pumping up the chair to a good height for the tall woman to work with. She looks to Stephanie in the mirror now as she talks. "Wear that dress out one night and I'll bet you'll get invites to dates to wear it out more to." She smiles then adds, "rainbow polka dot sounds cute. Sounds like something Sparrow would wear. Do you know Sparrow?"

"Ran into her at karaoke before, she seems cool," Stephanie replied, then she shrugs. "I don't know about that. It's way too...nice for any of the places I hang out at. But it's something nice to have just in case I ever do get a date." She chuckles quietly.

"Where do you hang out?" Nicole moves on to brushing out the long locks with a comb, checking out the strands for split ends and such as she goes. "Like, you are off on a Friday night, want to go out and have fun, where do you go?"

"The Pourhouse, when I actually have the time," Steph admits. "Maybe, sometimes at Hera's gallery. But usually just the bars."

"Pourhouse is good times at least." Nicole pulls out a table from her station. It's like one of those pull out cutting boards in kitchens, but different. She lays out the towel that was on Stephanie's hair, then sets her tools she plans to use upon it. Scissors first. "Want to donate it to Locks of Love? I think you are going to have enough to do so."

"Oh yeah of course! Save as much of it as you can to donate, I'd love that." Steph immediately replies without a second thought. Then she says, "Yeah, it's good times, usually. It's, you know, I struggle meeting new people."

Nicole nods and gets a couple hair elastics from a drawer, separating Stephanie's hair into two low ponytails, checking the length, then grabbing the scissors. Before the woman can change her mind or anything, SNIP, off goes one. She moves to the other and SNIP, bye bye hair. With the cut off bits secured in the elastics, the now much shorter hair swings free and brushes against Stephanie's shoulders. "Yeah, Me too, sometimes. Sparrow and Joey are the ones that got me out of my shell, really. She's super good for that."

Stephanie exhales as the hair is cut. "Damn, it feels like something's missing back there," she says with a chuckle. "New year, new me. This is just the beginning."

"To be fair... something is missing." Nicole holds up the ponytails and swings them in the mirror for Stephanie to see. Setting them aside she then starts actually cutting Stephanie's hair, taking care to make it even with comb in one hand and scissors in another.

"I've been here my entire life. I don't know if I'll ever make it out there like my brother and my sister did...but I'd like to at least take a road trip to Seattle sometime soon, just...just for an adventure." Steph said, "Is that crazy?"

Arching a brow, Nicole leans back and peers at Stephanie, her hands pausing. "No. That's not crazy at all. It's not even that far. Hell, you should take a trip somewhere fabulous! Orbitz has deals all the time."

"By myself? What would I even do?" Steph feels like she's at a loss. "I mean I definitely have to do something. In the spirit of my reinvention, of course. But alone?"

Getting back to cutting, Nicole says, "well, you could go with a friend. But, yeah, you could go alone too. Like... Vegas! Tons to do there. Or to some beach somewhere, lay out on the sand. Plus, if you go alone, you get to do all the things you want to do without anyone complaining."

"Hmmmm...I'll have to consider that. I don't really know who I would ask. Might be nice to take some time off." Nicole stays quiet for a moment before she says, "Would you be interested in a vacation with me at some point?"

Switching scissors to a set made to thin out and layer hair, Nicole smiles and says, "Maybe! After my renovations are done. Like, spring or summer?"

"We can discuss it closer to the time," Steph replies, sitting back and enjoying the rest of her haircut. Nicole has always been really good to her so a vacation made sense, especially since she wanted to get closer to her hairstylist.

Nicole nods to the discussion about the vacation and continues working on Stephanie's hair as they chat. Overhead, mellow but happy music plays. Nicole takes good care of all her clients, but knowing this is such a big change for Stephanie, she takes a bit longer to make sure it is absolutely perfect and exactly what was wanted. When finished, she hands Stephanie a hand mirror so she can see her hair from all directions. "Well? How's it look?"