A hairpiece

Yesterday I went to get my hair cut at a local hair salon.  The lady who owns it works alone in her small shop behind the forest.  She probably only gets the few obaachan's (older ladies) in the neighborhood as customers. 

Just as she was finishing up with me, the telephone rang,

"Yes, yes.  Oh really?  Please come and show me.  Yes, I have a customer but she won't mind.  We'll be waiting for you."

My hairdresser explained that a friend/neighbor/customer had just bought a hairpiece.  NOT one of the hairdresser's hairpieces, but a brand name one from the expensive department store in the next city over.  And the hairpiece had arrived (hand delivered by a department store hairdresser) and her friend wanted to get an opinion about it...

"The hairpiece cost $6000." she whispered to me...  "I'm interested to see what a $6000 hairpiece looks like."

Me too!

So the friend/neighbor/customer toodled into the shop with a loud laugh and plopped into the chair next to me.

"What do you think?  Does this look like $6000 worth of hair?"

Thankfully she wasn't addressing me personally so I didn't have to answer...  Umm... a flat black Maltese puppy on her head? 

Now, I have seen some beautiful hairpieces on people...  and maybe I've seen some and not even known they were hairpieces because they were so natural.  But this one wasn't.

My hairdresser diplomatically asked questions about how the department store hairdresser had arranged the hairpiece on her friend's head.  And then she removed the hairpiece and did a bit of brushing and instructed on how to apply, how to arrange, and how to style the friend's own hair to blend with the hairpiece a bit more naturally.  By the end of the instruction period, standing in back I could squint my eyes and almost not be able to tell that this was a hairpiece.

I thanked my hairdresser and paid her and thanked the friend/neighbor/customer for the opportunity to learn about hairpieces. 

"Oh!  I've got to go too!  Here, give me that!"  (the hairdresser had taken the flat Maltese puppy off the lady's head again and was fluffing it.)

And the friend/neighbor/customer toodled back out the shop door waving her $6000 hairpiece like a handkerchief.

(Thank you Choco for modeling my duster.)