I’ve been itching for a change to my hair recently. I’d been thinking about going for a shorter cut, but my hair is already short. That coupled with bad haircuts I had in the past when I’ve tried to go shorternmade me nervous about going any shorter. But in my living daringly style, I decided to go for it.
As I was sitting in the chair yesterday, I was thinking about jobs that require vulnerability. I definitely think the interaction between a stylist and a client is one of those.
There I was sitting in this chair, letting a woman cut 4-ish inches off of my already short hair. Why would I let someone do this?
The reality is that if Donelle was a new-to-me stylist, I wouldn’t let her do anything so drastic. But Donelle has been cutting my hair for as long as I’ve lived in Tampa (coming up on 5 years). I trust her. We talk about what will work for my hair and what won’t. She’s honest with me about what won’t work, and I listen to her. She asks me about how I’ll wear the style when I leave. (Let’s face it, if it takes more than about 5 seconds for me to style it, it ain’t going to happen.) She asks me questions about what I want and don’t want as she progresses through the cut. We also talk about so many other things: music, school (hers and mine!), her son, her husband. She’s the friend who cuts my hair once a month! After years of this interaction and relationship, I feel more comfortable letting her do her thing. And, since I’m honest with her, she feels more comfortable doing her thing too!
This relationship wouldn’t be such a good one without vulnerability. If I were too scared to talk to Donelle about what I want, there would be no room for change. If Donelle didn’t talk to me about what would work for my style and my personality, I might hate my hair cut after I leave the salon because it requires more maintenance than I am really up for. If she just tried to appease me without telling me the whole story, same thing: I might hate the haircut when I leave because I won’t be able to get it to do what I want it to.
The relationship between a stylist and a client really does require vulnerability!
Go see Donelle at The Edge Salon if you are in the Tampa area!
Since Donelle and I are able to be open and honest with each other, I’m enjoying my lovely, new pixie cut. It requires even less maintenance than my angular bob did. I also happen to think it is super cute! Yay!
So, yay! for me being brave and trying something new even though I was nervous about it. And yay! to Donelle for working with me and keeping me looking lovely. My look isn’t exactly like the ones that were in the pictures (go figure that I don’t look like Rihanna), but I really love the suggestions Donelle made to make the look ‘me.’
What jobs do you think absolutely require vulnerability? (Or, maybe, the answer is that they all should…)