Alright. I am in Houston until I leave for San Diego on Wednesday (tomorrow) and to reduce the amount of liquids i.e. hair products I can bring in my carry on, I am getting my hair straightened. I also just love when my hair is straight and I can flip it like a white girl. So, I made a hair appointment for the day before I leave so my hair keeps the silky movements characteristic of a new hair appointment. I made an appointment with a miracle worker at this place called The Cutting Edge, a black owned barber shop/salon in the Galleria. She has done wonders on my hair does it in little time. This keeps me coming back. There is this one little thing though that just gets on my nerves. CP time. For those that don’t know the vernacular, CP times stands for color people time. Usually it is about 15 minutes past the time that anything is supposed to start, but this is subject to change. This rarely applies to me as I like to practice the mantra ‘to be on time is to be early and to late is to be on time’. Because of this, I am naturally at the salon at ten am (my appointment time) and the hairdresser is nowhere to be I sigh knowing that she will show up at some point of the day. 10:15 rolls around and start to get fidgety. 10:20. 10:30. 10:35 the salon’s phone rings. It’s her. She’s late. (No sh** Sherlock). Despite my temporary annoyance I smile at the man who answered the call and patiently wait for her to stroll through which she does at 10:45. It’s a good thing she is amazing at what she does or I would be out of there! Two hours plus or minus a few minutes my hair is flowy, straight, and has grown longer since January—a feat that is honestly hard to do with my hair. I walk out of there confident (as usual of course) and go off to meet my mom for lunch.
Many black women can attest to how much a pain in the butt the salon is. When you go it’s usually as early in the day as you can manage and you plan to stay at least 3 hours or more there due to a number of reasons. Thankfully my mom prevented me from experiencing this since I never had a perm, but every now and then when I need to get my ends clipped or want to rock a straight look and save myself some energy, I grit my teeth and bear it. After all, I get fantastic results!