OUR HAIRDRESSER IN KING’S CROSS
LONDON
One advantage of Loyalty programmes for
travellers is that one gets an occasional free flight or a hotel room. Expert
Frequent Fliers of course have ways of maximizing these benefits. There is even
a very active website FLYERTALK in which the ways of accumulate these benefits
are discussed in minute detail.
This is the third night that has been
accorded to me at a rather nice hotel near King’s Cross station within a few
months. Walking out of the hotel, towards the station, one comes across the
paraphernalia of city living: mobile phone shops, take out and eat in
restaurants and noodle stores, convenient stores with higher prices, to give
some examples.
On this morning I went past a hair salon,
peeped in, a solitary hairdresser looking after the coiffure of one, and an
empty table in the back where the customary oriental lady is waiting for
Nail/Pedi/Mani customers.
I decided to go in, to ask whether I could
get a trim and shaping of my unruly hair.
How are you, sir, the vivacious
hairdresser, greeted me, with a strong Mediterranean accent. Please sit down,
when she was finished with the other client, she came over and said, what can I
do for you, sir?
I would like a trim, but not shortening the
length and a bit of a shape to it, I blurted. Wet or Dry? What do you
recommend? Always better to cut it wet, she added with a theatrical flourish.
She shampooed my hair and gave me a scalp massage, and then seated me in front
of the mirror. She continued to chat in her chirpy voice. It was obvious she
loved her work, her life in London. She is from Sicily, and regaled me stories
of pasta of her grandmother, and pointing to her midriff. I was enjoying
listening to her accent that one would hear in Godfather!
She had no time for foreigners who
commented badly on the life in London or England. She was particularly harsh
about the French, who come and beg her to speak in French, when she would say,
we live in England, and I speak Good English, why you don't speak English? She
had opened this salon eight months ago, feels that people are working so hard
and long hours, that they could come and relax a bit in her salon while she
looks after their hair, on their way home from work or at lunch time. This
attention to beauty makes them feel better, she claims, with the expertise of a
Psychologist, which in a manner she is. She keeps the salon open until 8 pm so
that the hard working young executives have a place to go for a hair cut after
long hours of work. In this day of inflationary prices for haircuts, her basis
price is 10 pounds! And a little bit more for a wet cut. She attended to my
hair efficiently, gave it a bit of a shape and attended to the beauty aspects
of my face such as eyebrows, unwanted hairs etc. Viola!
I was expecting to pay 20 pounds or
something close for such a holistic treatment, but she said that would be 10
pounds, that is all.
This hair cut for me was a pleasure, walked
out of the place feeling good. I had made a new friend, Veronica, in London and
she will see me again when I am in London!
