snipping trust

yesterday, i got a haircut. the flurry of thoughts that crossed my mind in the 37 anxious minutes i sat in The Chair is as follows. 

1. greet hair dresser. make small talk. "oh heyy! *gives overbearing big hug* it's been SO long since i've last seen you! how has your summer been?!" etc. etc. 
2. sit down in stylist chair. 
3. make sure hair dresser knows what she is doing. katie is my favorite. i've followed her from salon to salon across the city of ann arbor over the last few years. at this point, i no longer bring in pictures. we operate on this concept called trust. "oh, just take it up a liiiiiiiittle bit just to get the dead stuff off the ends please. keep the length. i guess you could put the layers back in. but really, do whatever you want to do... whatever you think looks best. just keep the length!" 
4. get my hair brushed out, then move over to washing chair. 
5. get my hair washed. this is usually my favorite part. i love it when someone else washes my hair for me and massages my head. it. feels. so. good. (and the shampoo that they use in the salons smell so expensive.... synonymous to "good" in this case.)
6. towel dry hair, then move back over to the stylist chair. 
7. this is where the serious stuff begins. *snip snip, snip.* *snip.* *snip snip.* *snip.* *snip.* i hate the sound of hair being cut. it makes me cringe in the chair, because i know there is no going back. if katie makes a mistake, i'm stuck with it for the next 3-4 months, until it grows out. 
8. 15 minutes later, she is still going to town with cutting my hair. this is when i get particularly nervous. what is taking so long? i said only a little minor trim... at this point, with each *snip*, i feel like 4-5 inches of my hair is being chopped off. i am worrying.
9. i contemplate saying something, but i feel out of line trying to tell the professional that she is doing her job wrong when i have zero expertise in haircutting. so we remain silent, and continue to cringe. i try hard not to let my thoughts show on my face. i also have absolutely no idea how this haircut will turn out.
10. "would you like it blown out straight or curled?" she's finally done, and it's now time to blow dry my hair. "whatever you feel like doing today," i respond. so she proceeds by picking up the round brush. then turns the seat around so that i am unable to see what she's doing in the mirror. 
11. this is when i get particularly anxious. we are now in the last minutes before the truth sets in.

finally, she turns the chair around, and needless to say, it looked amazing. exactly how i was hoping it would look. except... one last thing. "do you mind taking these pieces in the front up just maybe another inch?" i wanted them shorter because they always grow out fast. 

"not a problem!" she replies, and proceeds to make the adjustments. *snip... snip.* except this is when i realize that my judgement call was not as good as hers. i should've just left it at what she had. and that's when i realized how hard it was for me to trust, even in the little things. why did i have such a hard time trusting throughout the entire haircut, even though she's never messed up a single haircut in the past? and when we trusted in my own judgement, it was wrong. her way looked better. i learned my lesson: trust the person in control. thinking that i know when i really don't know is just about the worst thing i could do.  

i'm still trying to learn how to trust more. very slowly. *defaulting to professional input*

and, the haircut was free. it was an extra touch of grace. :)