I’m okay!

Anthony, my Vietnamese hairdresser, seemed weirdly relieved when I texted him to ask for an appointment. I see him every five to six weeks, for touchups. He’s our longtime family hairdresser. My daughter-in-law has been seeing him for close to 30 years, and over the years, so have most other family members. Both of my son’s, a granddaughter, a grandson, and my daughter-in-law’s mother, who travels all the way from Delaware to see him. 

I have been seeing him for close to twenty years now, we have followed him through three different salons in the area, and I have referred several friends to him. 

I have his private number and when I need an appointment, I text him directly, rather than calling the salon to set it up. He bends over backwards to accommodate us. During the pandemic, he let me come in early in the morning, when nobody else was in the salon, and if I have something going on and need to see him on a particular day, he’ll come in even if it is his day off. 

Sometimes he knows more about what my tribe has been up to than I do and I find out who’s been in last or if one of my sons is having his head shaved for the summer, or who of the men is growing out his hair or switching to a new style.

If one of the guys has scheduled an appointment not long after me, I’ve occasionally paid it forward and surprised them with paying for their haircut upfront, and before Christmas, Anthony will point out the products that my daughter-in-law and granddaughter use so I have some stocking stuffers ready.

When I saw him this week, it had been almost three months since my last appointment – time that I needed to recover from a stressful vacation, and thanks to the cheat spray to cover the roots and a skillful trim of my own bangs, I was able to get away with it for that long – a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Anthony.

“I was worried,” he said. “I have not seen you in so long, and then Tom, Will and Susan all came in at the same time last week.” He said it with an apologetic grin.

No worries, Anthony. I’m okay!