Taking Time - Part I

       Our new home has a built-in dressing table in the master bathroom.  I still haven't used it -- in part because I haven't found a chair or stool that's right for the space, but also because it just seems old-fashioned. Some friends who have taken the grand tour of our home have actually laughed at the dressing table. One or two didn't even know what it was for.

       I mean, who sits down to do their grooming these days? Everyone I know just kind of leans toward the mirror to quickly slap on foundation or mascara or whatever. Some women do their make-up while riding the train or bus, and some even do it while driving. We're all too busy to devote much time or attention to the way we look.

       I figure that might be part of my problem.

       Take my hair, for instance.  My hair is naturally curly, but the style has been tending toward straight hair for the last several years. Despite half-hearted efforts to make my hair suit this trend, I never accomplish my goal.  

       The stylist who cuts my hair tells me that she knows what I am doing wrong. I just dry it until it seems dry, she says. And frankly, that seems perfectly appropriate to me.  But the stylist says that when I think my hair is dry, it really isn't.  She says I should consider that just the starting point -- before I spend still more time pulling a big round brush through my hair, holding the hair dryer just so, switching the dryer to cool air occasionally, and working, working, working until my locks are smooth and shiny. And then, because my hair is fine -- like baby hair -- I should lightly backcomb in just the right places, so that my hair isn't too flat while it lies smooth and straight.

       Yeah, sure...

       The fact is that I resent having to dry my hair, and recently have been convincing myself that my hair can surely be washed less often -- so that I can avoid wasting my time drying it. I wish I was like Tom, who can run a brush though his hair -- in five seconds or less -- and look just fine.  But I have tried it, and Tom and I both agreed that I ended up looking like a drowned rat.

      Even trips to the salon seem silly and wasteful to me.  I have recently canceled repeated hair appointments, figuring that I can easily go another month without going to the salon.

       And even when I do make it into the salon, I feel impatient.  I have things to do!  When I do go in, I bring items with me so I can do useful things while the stylist is fussing over my strands. I bring my laptop, or a pen and paper so I can make lists of tasks, or reading material I have been wanting to get to.

       Maybe that is the wrong attitude. Maybe I deserve a little bit of relaxed time -- a little bit of attention -- just for me...