Hair woe again

My hair is waist length. It has been for a couple of months. It's fun for a while, then it's just a pain. That's the time I donate it to Locks of Love. It's been about three years since I last did it, so I set out to have my every-three-years haircut.

The Locks of Love website doesn't give a list of salons anymore. Hard to maintain, I understand. So I called around. A couple of places will cut in accordance with LOL's stipulations, but I'd have to send it in myself. Too lazy! A beauty school will do everything for Wigs for Kids and that's close enough for me, so I make an appointment.

I pack snacks and toys for the two boys I'll have with me and we talk about being quiet and good and staying by me and then we'll go to the store for a treat. They agree to the deal. I walk in and there are eight employees/students leaning on the front desk and chatting. Excellent, I think, it's not busy at all so the boys won't be a bother at all. But then I'm told that they're not allowed in the salon portion, and an adult has to be with them in the reception area. "I can't keep them with me? There's no one here." "No, I'm sorry. Is there someone you can call?" There sure isn't. I'm the babysitter. She offers that they have evening appointments a few days a week. A few days a week in the evenings, I am teaching a class or taking a class. If something can't be done in the afternoon with two toddlers in tow, it doesn't happen. I walk out and we go to the grocery store, where the boys are delightful and well-behaved, considering there is only one steering wheel in the fire truck shopping cart.

Civilians fear my hair. It's thick like a rope, coarsely textured and curly. My husband thinks it's trying to kill him (it might be). My mom has agreed to cut it Friday night so that there's time for correction if need be. Seriously, though, salons, I understand there are economic pressures on all of us. That's why I want a free haircut and tax deductibility certificate of donation. You can't accommodate hair donors? You know that women who grow an extra foot of hair are low-maintenance, less is more kind of women, and we tend to be close parents with multiple children. Work with me. The stinker of it is, LOL encourages generous tipping since no one is getting paid for the cut (if anyone still does it) and I was properly armed to make it worth the stylist's patience to saw through my hair with two three year olds rocking the ABCs twenty times. We all lost here, Local Beauty School.