Trial and Error or Error and Trial

Before I left Texas for the adventure that is Australia, I went to my fabulous hair stylist, Trish.  I needed to have one more great hair cut before I left and I needed her to take pictures of it on my camera phone so I could show my new hair stylist here (once I found one) what my cut is supposed to look like.  Trish told me to go to a public place and look around for a hair cut I liked and then ask that person where they go to get their hair done.  I tried to do that but it is kind of amazing how little great hair you find here.  Maybe it has to do with the fact that winter is ending but mostly you find ponytails, sometimes sloppy ones and sometimes not, or hair is just left to hang and it looks stringy.  So when my boys needed haircuts I took them to a place close to where we live and they ended up cutting my hair also.  Finding a good hairstylist in a new place is risky and this risk did not go well for me or the boys.  

I showed the girl the pictures on my phone and after talking about it for a bit she started to cut.  I began to suspect I was in trouble when she said, "Boy, this is going fast."  I told her I didn't need it to go fast.  I just needed it to look good. She laughed.  Did she really think I was joking?  I had to tell her it needed to be layered and after layering one side of my hair she asked if I wanted the other side layered too.  Well, yeah honey.  If you layer one side you have to layer everything else as well.  The angle of my hair is supposed to end at my chin and she made it end in the middle of my cheek.  The back did not blend into the front and it was longer in back on one side than the other.  It was also cut differently on the left side than the right side.  

How do people with so much lack in skill ever get issued a license?  I mean, they do have to pass a test or something, don't they?  The boys' hair, cut by someone else, was not done well either.  They don't really care but I do.  

In the South Melbourne Market just a few streets away from our house, is a place called the "Hair House."  Two days after my bad cut took place, I went to the Hair House, showed them the pictures of what I wanted versus what I actually got and they were horrified.  Ten minutes later, I was sitting in front of Maria who took good care of me.  She fixed it as much as she could and once it grows for about six weeks she can do more.  It looks better and I feel better.

The way I found Maria is very similar to the way I found Trish.  After having one of the worst hair cuts EVER! my friend, Rebecca, recommended Trish to me.  She was a life saver.  I literally did not want to go outside with my hair looking as bad as it did and after leaving a desperate message on Trish's phone, almost crying, she got me in that night and started my hair on its way to recovery.  After a few months of haircare-by-Trish, my hair was where I wanted it.  Now I'm back to square one.  But it is even in the back, has the same cut on both sides and is layered evenly.  And she didn't rush it.