Hair that moves

Walking: 20 minutes...and...

Magdalenka, our local Polish hairdresser's, i.e. just an empty storefront one weekend, followed by a few days very hard work by team of Poles, the arrival of the orange and red IKEA sofa, and open for business. The tragedy is I don't have a digital camera at the moment, so cannot post these wash and blow-dry photos, but for those who are following the plot so far I'm spicing up my daily walking quota by testing out all the local hair salons, in search of that elusive grail, the natural looking blow-dry. No cutting, no colouring, just washing and drying, and attempting to come out of the hairdresser's looking better than when I went in.

Not easy in Hendon. Definitely not a success today. I thought I'd give the hard-working Polish girls a try; there seem to be about five of them running the place, and every day they add a new inducement: henna, sun-beds, manicures etc etc.

I have come out looking like I just left mittelEurope. My hair has been loaded with mousse and pulled tight strand by strand around a tightly curled brush, then, if that wasn't enough, little pink rollers came out and six choice locks were wound round the little pink rollers. My head was then inserted into a rain-kerchief and popped under huge old-fashioned hairdryer. The hairspray followed, and follows me still an hour later. £18, one pound cheaper than last week's attempt.

I think the simple difference between suburban hair, and "good" hair is just this: movement. Suburban hair has no movement, no lustre, no swing. Will I ever find it in Hendon? The search - and the walking - goes on. (And on...there are at least another eight hairdressers within my walking range - more than any other single type of shop.)

Comments

[Sandra Walker]

Hi Dina, I had a flashback from my youth reading about your 'hair experience'. To make a long story short, my mother cut my hair a lot shorter than I really wanted, and then proceeded to give me a 'Toni', which made me look like the actor, Sal Mineo!! (I'm giving away my age here!) I wore a scarf on my head for what seemed like a year before I wasn't embarrassed to remove it. Anyway, you are taking your walks and I hope that it is helping! Sandra xx