Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Salon Talk

Margaret Thatcher has always been a woman I truly admire. I love
her nickname "Iron Lady" and that she, in her diplomatic days,
was an iron fist in a velvet glove. Charming, beautiful, intelligent and
strong. But I just don't want to have her hair. My sister and I were
chatting the other day about death and I made her promise me, when
the time came, sometime in the very distant future, that I wouldn't have
"Thatcher hair" as I lie in my casket. A few years back, I went to
a young girl to have my hair cut and highlighted. She had her own little
shop in a small town near ours. Some of my friends, with chic modern
styles, were her patrons, so I had no worries. She spent an inordinate
amount of time on me, tweaking and snipping for hours. When she
finally twirled me around in the chair and handed me a mirror, to
properly view the finished product, I was horrified!! There on my head
perched a stiff, teased and perfectly flipped nest of molded hair that
made me look exactly like the Iron Lady. Maybe because I was old
enough to be this girl's mother, she assumed I needed a nice
matronly hairstyle. But this was definitely not the fresh new look we
had previously discussed. Everything else was a blurr, hunkering
down in the seat, driving home at breakneck pace, before I could
be spotted by anyone I knew. I was lucky not to have been stopped
for speeding. But then, what cop in his right mind, could possibly
give Margaret Thatcher a ticket?

18 comments:

  1. Now that I've stopped laughing with tears STREAMING down my face....I can comment! ha-ha!
    That is too funny! You should have mentioned that we also discussed not letting any mortician give us a "Miami tan" (whole other story) or some neon colored lipstick that clashes with our dress! All I can say is that which poor sister will be the last to go....with no sister there to make sure she looks normal?? Poor thing. Makes you want to go first!
    About the hair...I have a very similar story. Went to friend's beautician... without worries... because they always look so cute and wound up with something poofy and weird that I took directly home and into the kitchen sink for a shampoo!
    Great story...thanks for posting and making me laugh!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Willow, I totally agree, something about maturing causes us to evaluate our appearance more frequently. How grateful I am to have two teenage daughters still at home to keep me in the know about style. I happened to mention just yesterday, " I do not want to look like a grandmother!", quickly my three darlings responded, "but mom, you are a grandmother " What a fun post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Funny hairem-scarem story; this gave me my morning smile. Poor Margaret, with her helmet-head; but somehow, you have to admit that it suits her...I can't imagine her with any other 'do.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh dear!
    I can remember having my hair set to be a bridesmaid many moons ago.
    It was beyond helmet hair and made me look horrendous.
    Now I keep my hair very short and air dry it.
    I am a low maintenance person.
    Yes, Morroc's colors still astound me!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am laughing out loud...we have all been there girl :)..but I have never heard a better description in my life...that needs to be published somewhere, someplace, sometime....great post!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Omigosh, that is horrid. If you think Thatcher's hair was "constructed", you should check out Pamela Churchill Harriman.

    - Suzanne, the Farmer's WIfe

    ReplyDelete
  7. Willow, did you ever see "For Your Eyes Only", there is a funny scene at the end, with an actress portraying the Iron Lady at home, in the kitchen, being a bossy-boots to her poor husband Dennis. Very amusing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes, I remember that scene. It is hilarious!! :):) (haven't seen that movie in ages)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I just hope I still have hair by the time I am really old. Mine began to fall out years ago. I slave over getting the thinning spots covered just so each morning. Whenever I get my hair cut I always rush right home because she always leaves me "exposed".

    You know what I need? Someone who can still see tiny objects to look for the wayward hairs that have begun to grow on my neck! Yuck to aging, it is so demoralizing!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes, so demoralizing. My hair is only about half as thick as it once was. (among a long list of other strange and unattractive things)

    Maybe our eyes are getting bad, to spare us the agony?

    ReplyDelete
  11. LOL....nothing like a bad hairstyle to ruin your day....or month.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This post had me in stitches because like most everyone else, I've had some nightmare visits from hair salons. My worst was the perm from you know where! I refuse to ever get another one no matter how I'd like my stick straight hair to have some curl every now and then.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I can't remember now how I found your blog, but I'm delighted to be here.

    I laughed so hard because that is always what seems to happen to me. I DON'T WANT TO LOOK LIKE AUNT EDNA, OK? hehehe... I want to look young & carefree & having looked at what I just said, it took 5 full minutes to quit laughing. Sometimes I crack myself up.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Or Dame Edna, for that matter, right? Yes, young and carefree is the objective here. Thanks for the chuckles and welcome to my Manor, Snooty. I'll have to trot over to your place...

    ReplyDelete
  15. All my hair nightmares are from my mother who fancied herself as a bit of a hairdresser. I have more than a few very embarrassing pictures from my youth. What was she thinking? I would no more cut my kids hair than I would shoot myself in the foot.

    I had a scandalous infatuation with Mrs Thatcher in my late teens. My very left wing family were horrified. I have now seen the light, but there is always a level of admiration for what she stood for. The last of a generation of politicians that you could really link to an era that has long gone.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Colin, speaking of hair nightmares...yours is pretty darn silly! ;) I think we all have our share of moms trimming the bangs at a scary angle. And couldn't they see that it was crooked and fix the problem? No. We had to live with it. Thanks for stopping by my blog, BTW.

    ReplyDelete
  17. LOL!

    Well, I love Maggie. she will always remain one of my heroes. Such poise and strength of conviction.

    ReplyDelete
  18. oh dear.. its one thing to see Thatcher hair on someone, but to HAVE t perpetrated on YOU!

    Are you out of therapy yet ? Hope the hairdressser paid for every cent of it. Such trauma.

    Thanks for popping by,,,

    ReplyDelete

Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)