When the stylist cutting my hair said, “Don’t worry, it’ll grow out by June,” I panicked. It’s February for God’s sake! “It looks great from the front. It was just a little misunderstanding.” Ya think?
I’ll try not to turn my head around for a few months.
Remember the mullet? Business up front, party in the back. Well this haircut is all party in the front, business in the back.
I’m partying now!
All business back here…
Statistically, most people process less than 50% of what was is said. Is that scary or what?
Many times, they miss the negative words like no or not, don’t or won’t, or only remember a part of the last sentence. The stylist never heard the word, don’t!
Misunderstandings abound in reading and writing as well. Many times, I have read the tags at the bottom of a story, relieved to find the word satire or fiction.
Sometimes readers skim. I include pictures because they fill in the blanks for readers when they are in a hurry.
When I first started blogging, I skimmed a really long fiction post:
A young woman went to a summer party. She hoped to hook up with a guy, but suspected he was involved with someone else. I stopped reading at the part when he led her to the pool house and they started making out.
I raced to the comment section and wrote, “Great story. Loved the imagery and description.”
Then, as I paged up, I read some of the other comments:
“Whew! Now I need a cold shower.”
“That girl has stamina.”
“She sure knows how to party. I had a different ending in mind, but she was one twisted sister!”
What? I scrolled back up to see what all the excitement was about. Oh my God! She had been kissing the one guy when another stumbled in on them and joined in the fun. Holy crap! They were right. I missed a really steamy three-way sex scene. After reading it, I needed a cold shower too!
Why didn’t she include pictures? Insert smiley face emoticon here.
Imagine how much is misconstrued in conversation. We sometimes miss the intonation of subtle sarcasm or the hint of humor. I tend to say a lot more than needed to get my idea across. I suspect that my friends often check out and are making mental grocery lists by the time I get to the point of my story.
There is always so much to learn and practice. I believe the universe only hears positive words. Ironically, listeners tune them out too and often misunderstand the message.
“You said, ‘Don’t record over the season finale of Downton Abbey?’ Oopsy. I thought you said, ‘Record over the season finale of Downton Abby. Dang.’”
Next time, I’ll bring in a picture of how I want my hair cut. To avoid the funkiness, I’ll use positive words to describe it. In the meantime, I’ll keep on partying in the front and let the business grow in the back. June will be here before I know it. Right?
Has this ever happened to you?
Related links:
Changing minds
Susie Lindau's Wild Ride 
I don’t think your hair looks bad, I think it’s cute. But I know how you feel about getting something you didn’t ask for. Once I had someone cut my hair and even though it was a cute pixie when you put product in it you could see my scalp which is too short. I never went back there again.
The most recent oops was at my sister’s wedding. Yeah, not cool right? She made appointments for us to get our hair styled and I asked for an updo. When the girl was done I was furious because it looked so bad and have close to 100 bobby pins in it. I went straight to my stylist and asked her to fix it which she did, after the two of us spent forever finding all the pins. Once I got to the wedding, barely on time, my sister looked at me and said, “Thank God you fixed your hair, it looked awful!” That is the first and last time I’ll let my sister make a hair appointment for me.
LikeLike
Oh god. How horrible! My head hurt just thinking about pulling out all of those bobby pins. Good thing you had the gumption to stop by your own stylist! I probably would have been too stressed out to think straight! Good on you! Great story!
My hair is still so short in the back. It’s been more than a year since I had really long hair and I still catch myself trying to flip it out from my neckline. Talk about a creature of habit! Hahaha!
Have a great week and thanks for sharing your story!
LikeLike
First off, your hair looks fantastic. You’ve got great hair. When I go to the barber he tells me, “It’ll grow back…in your next life.”. As far as skimming posts, I hate when people do that. If I would have done that with yours, it would have gone something like this…
….When I see a young woman at a party, I need to take a cold shower and then relax with an episode of Downtown Abbey….
LikeLike
Hahaha! So funny! Still laughing…
I don’t mind when people skim. To me it’s like someone telling me that they care about me enough to make the effort to stop by, which is really huge for a lot of people, but they may not have been engaged enough to read the whole thing or they only had a minute to peek.
I do get those kinds of responses sometimes and they crack me up!
I had it colored last week and the stylist (not the same one) told me that it would only take 6 weeks. Yay! I really never look at the side of my head, so it doesn’t bother me anymore…
Thanks so much Cayman! Have a great week! Spring is coming…
LikeLike
Lucky you to have a chic haircut. Looks it requires some care to be flippy great.
I’ll have to return to my stylist and see if she can ..make a correction for free: one side doesn’t match the other.
LikeLike
Definitely go back to her. Mine has already grown 1/32 of an inch! Woohoo!
Thanks so much Jean! It does take a flat iron, but it doesn’t take more than 2 minutes since there is no hair in the back!
LikeLike
How much did you tip your hair-dresser (mainly for the comforting words that they will grow back again)?
And on the other part of the story (only to prove that I read your entire post… not on the blog but have been a victim of jumping on to quick response at work. We get ton of email everyday & some really write essays to convey their point across starting with not possible in first para & then going on to explain how that can be made possible. My limited attention span at long emails have prompted me to abort the reading after first few lines & jump on to respond, only to be reminded by a colleague, that’s exactly what he meant. WP doesn’t allow pictures in comments, so let me see if this text grips you till the end. 🙂
LikeLike
HAHAHA! I was gripped all the way through! Hey I don’t blame anyone for skimming and would rather have people stop by for a quick peek than not at all!
I was in shock and did tip her. I was paying for my mother’s hair at the same time so that made it awkward. No more haircuts while on vacation! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
LikeLike
I’m still trying to grow MY sideburns :] Susie I know you don’t know me but I would claim that you are a Queen! If you’re still responding to these comments after all this time, I must be a man, HAHAHAHA aah, Love Your Wild Blog!
LikeLike
Awww! It’s the least I can do. Thank you so much!
They must have chopped them off! That has happened to my husband. At least hair grows fast! You can always try Biotin supplements~ I bought some after my hair disaster.
Come back and leave a link at my blog party – Use Me and Abuse Me Day. It is a great way to pick up some new followers!
LikeLike
I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for the leg up with the link party and all. I was able to get my blog some more exposure so that is great. I started a new segment called the poetry challenge if you you get time check it out thanks again.
LikeLike
Thanks Robert! I am glad that you enjoyed the party! I will host one again later in April.
Thanks for the heads up!
LikeLike