One of the problems with my job is that I live a good 30 miles away. That’s at least a half-hour drive, on a good day; with normal Atlanta traffic, that’s 45 minutes to an hour. Couple this with my late working hours, and most normal businesses are closed by the time I get home. Moreover, I’m so tired by this point, the last thing I want to do is go out and run errands.

I get a half-hour for lunch, though, so I decided to get my hair cut over my lunch break today. It’s getting unmanagably thick, and I want to make a good first impression on the people I meet this week. Fortunately, there was some sort of hair salon in the shopping center my Local Computer Store is in, so I thought I’d just run over there and get it done.

I walked in, and the lady said she’d be with me in a minute. She motioned for a Korean man to take care of me. He smiled and came over to me and gestured to a chair. I sat down, and he said, in a thick accent, “I will shampoo your hair!”

“I already shampooed just this morning!” I protested. With Suave, I wanted to add. Doesn’t it smell nice?

“I will shampoo it first, and then she will cut it!” he declared. I reluctantly submitted. He washed it, scrubbed it, and rinsed. “Finally,” I thought. “I just want to get this over with so I can eat lunch.” And then he put more shampoo on it and scrubbed it again. “I hope he doesn’t take those ‘Lather. Rinse. Repeat’ instructions on the bottle too literally, or I might never get out of here!” I thought. Then he rinsed my hair out.

And then he put more shampoo on it.

What the ?!!!

I was seriously contemplating the pros and cons of just leaping up, shouting, “Stop! Stop already! I can’t take it anymore!” when he finally dried my hair.

Thank goodness. I was afraid I’d wind up going over the half-hour I had for my lunch break. As it is, I’d probably have to wolf down my chicken sandwich on the go.

Now, I don’t know how long your haircuts take you, but I have a pretty simple haircut. Just cut it about an inch shorter. No fancy stylings or anything. It usually takes 10-15 minutes at most of the hair places I’ve been to. This lady, though, took her time. After a long while, she asked me, “Is this short enough?” I said, “Yes,” very pleased that it was nearly done.

And then she just kept cutting.

I was afraid she’d made a mistake, and kept on trying to “even it up.”

By the time I got back, my “30 minute” lunch break had stretched into 50 minutes. I showed my boss I had a new haircut, and he smiled and nodded. I stayed late this evening to make up some of the lost time.