The Hair Saga

(Who-o-o-oah) For the longest time (get it??) my entire family went to this one gal at the Cost Cutters in Fox Lake to get our hair did. Momma, Pop, Hambone and I all loved Dawn.

She was the only person who ever touched my hair except for my mom. I started going to her when I was in the neighborhood of 9 years old, and absolutely loved the fact that I could go in and tell her to have fun and make me cute. She never let me down. We followed her to different salons and congratulated her when she won awards from the company.

Then she had the nerve to move to Florida when I was about 20 or so. I was lost - I didn't know what to do. She was my hair gal, and I didn't know anyone else.

Finding a new stylist is a scary thing.

For the next couple of years I bounced around from salon to salon, visiting a never-ending barage of mediocre stylists...never connecting with anyone the way I had with Dawn. I found myself growing my hair out rather than getting a kind-of-okay cut from a stranger.

My favorite hair story so far involves Momma, me, a plane and a surprise visit. In 2003, my mom and I flew to Orlando to spend time with my then-best friend while she was on an internship at Disney. Before we left IL, Momma did her homework...

Between trips to Sea World, Cocoa Beach and Clearwater, we ended up in Brookfield, FL. I can't remember the name of the salon, but it was classic when we walked in. Dawn, working on someone in the first chair behind the register, looked up and said, "Hey gals...I'll be with you in a sec." And she turned back to her client as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Priceless. That's the only way I can describe the look on her face as she realized she hadn't seen us in a couple of years and we tracked her down in freaking Florida of all places.

Following this revelation were a few very girly moments of shrieking, hugging and jumping up and down like 12-year-olds who have come face-to-face with the entire cast of High School Musical.

We hung for a while, got our hair did like the old days (mine was a sassy little flipped bob, burgundy with fuchsia highlights), and shot the shit with Dawn.

Good times. Those of you who know me...well, you know I like to mess with my hair. It's fun, and every so often you can completely change it. I've always had fun with this stuff, but man do I miss Dawn.

I'm thinking it's about time to start planning another trip to Florida!

In the six years since our visit to Dawn down south, I've bounced around to a few different places. Most notable moments include the butch job that was so bad I had to take a day off work to go get it fixed at Tricoci, and the chocolate-cherry-colored asymmetrical 'do I sported in our family picture for 2008.

Four of those six years have been spent loyally returning to Paige at Mario Tricoci in Crystal Lake. Her prices have continued skyrocketing, and she has stopped even pretending to listen to me. A couple of months back I asked for this:

And she did this:

A few tear-stained hours later I had my $85 back, but I knew I could never return to that salon.

This cut has grown out like absolute poop, and I've been dying to get a new style since the last one so wasn't what I wanted. But frankly I've been terrified to find someone new. It's a big deal for me, I guess.

This morning The Hubbs said I could raid the garbage sale money and go get my hair cut after work. After much deliberation I decided I'd try a cheap place...after all, I'd gotten great service at one before and I'd just gotten completely screwed by Tricoci. So what did I have to lose?

I walked into Cost Cutters in McHenry and showed Nicole this picture:

And here's what she did:

For $10. That's right - just $10. Why can't the hoity-toity $50+ beeyotches ever get it right?

I've learned my lesson. Not only have I found someone who listens when I ask for something...she's cheap enough that I can actually get my hair cut every month if I want to. And she was done in 15 minutes or less.

Take that, Tricoci.