getting the haircut thing right

When Terry and I lived in Gilroy we had a regular hair stylist named Debbie. Terry would go in and then while her color was processing I would get my haircut. It was not inexpensive, but it worked well.

When we moved to Hemet in 2015 I found a hair stylist named Stephanie in the salon here at Four Seasons. She soon eliminated her Four Seasons hours, but I was able to see her at a nearby salon called Ambience. Stephanie did a good job (though she never touched my eyebrows), but the owners sold the salon and Stephanie didn’t like the business model the new owners instituted. She moved to a salon a half hour away. That was too far for me.

I found a stylist named Taylor at a salon just west of downtown Hemet. He gave me a couple of haircuts, but I wasn’t happy with the results. I then came across Sonja who had a shop downtown. I was mostly happy with her, but I had a couple of haircuts I wasn’t pleased with. Then the height of the pandemic hit and she kept forging ahead, taking no precautions. Not for me.

I took to cutting my own hair in front of the bathroom mirror, with Terry doing the back. The team approach worked out well.

I didn’t want to keep doing that, however, and as the pandemic eased I found a small shop where the owner was taking proper COVID precautions. She did a good job, but after the first of the year I showed up for an appointment and she thought I was supposed to have been there the day before. I showed her my appointment card. I was there on the day and at the time we had agreed upon six weeks earlier. For my next appointment, a cold and blustery day, the shop was locked and closed.

Moving on. I had a couple of haircuts at the Ulta store where Terry has her hair done, but it was too expensive and the results were not great. I then checked the salon here at Four Seasons. For a while there was only one stylist, Lupe, who has been here forever. She has no interest in new clients. But by then a second stylist had come onboard. I had a few haircuts with her, but they never held up properly.

Time to try again. I found a small downtown salon on Yelp where the listing said they did men’s hair. The owner of the shop is Cheri. She was pleasant (and loved to talk) but took the time to ask me how I wanted my hair cut. She did a great job and Terry said it was the best haircut I’d had since we did the work ourselves.

It’s been a week and the haircut is holding up well. I’m hoping things work out with Cheri for the long haul.