Why is acting important so effective in this city? I accidentally discovered this while getting my hair done last week. The hair technician, a twenty year old wearing All Saints baggy clothes, had promised me a two hour appointment. The first hour she was talking to her coworkers about attending Kanye’s church in California. The second hour she was worriedly asking the boss of the salon to come check the hair (why is it turning sort of blue??), the third hour she was pressuring me to take another white claw, and the last hour I was emerging from the chair with skunk stripes as the other 10 people in the crowded salon looked at me with pity. Usually I’d shut up and pay the full price, with a very enthusiastic “thank you” and “have a good day”, and then cry on my own the whole way home. But today the three white claws were kicking in, and I thought, for once, let me just pretend to be a woman, mid thirties, making six figures, who always wears custom slacks, someone that simply wouldn’t accept something so subpar. So I looked the salon technician in the eye and talked about how it was “unacceptable”, and said I didn’t even have time to argue, the extra hour meant I had to delay a very important work call with a client (client??), I looked at the phone’s time repeatedly, and just like that, the price dropped to 150$ and with apologies from the boss. It wasn’t even a very convincing performance, but a few words changed everything. I didn’t even have to be bitchy, just… busy. I hate that, why can’t we all be fair to people who don’t act inconvenienced? I want to be quiet and polite!!! But, I also don’t want to get ripped off the one time I decide to spend money on my hair. My friend once walked into the middle of a Law and Order shoot in the city accidentally mid shot, no one had stopped her because, as the guy with the headset had said, “she looked like she knew what she was doing”. I don’t want to be a booger just to be treated properly at places where I’m spending money, I hate it!
Monday, Apr 6, 2026
