I think of all the thousands of heads of hair I have cut in my career, and all the hair left behind, and the clients who, walk out the door with a bit more bounce in their step. I think of all the things I could do with the millions of strands that fall to the ground. I imagine how heavy that pile would it have accumulated into one massive hair ball, or creating walls, tunnels, out the door and onto the street. I could stand the piles up, side by side, the difference in textures, and colors would be as disparaging as the clients who have sat in my chair. Some piles would be 1/2 inch by 1'', some would me 5" deep, depending on the client.
If I could flatten out the piles, I could make squares, like a quilt, connecting their lives. I could create a time line with the squares from when I began, til' now, building a path laid out into infinity. If I could stack the flattened squares, I would stand on top and feel how tall these clients have helped to make me feel. If that quilt of hair could float, it would surely buoy me a long ways out on a turbulent ocean, and keep me safe. If these piles could tell the stories of the clients that leave the salon, carrying on in their day, and into their lives, as a new person, in their new look, it would be a very interesting story. If I could jumble the pile up, mixing, tossing, like a summer vegetable salad, I would have a very colorful, unique, wondrous, and very deep mix of personalities, experiences and preferences.
