Page 57 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon
Trudy turned to Evie and grinned. ‘Don’t hear that often, do we, Evie?’
Evie shook her head.
Anna’s eyes met Ingrid’s in the mirror and she saw something unfamiliar in them: curiosity.
‘What do you think, Mama?’ she asked.
‘You have lovely hair, Anna,’ Ingrid said. ‘I’ve always thought so.’
That was probably a lie, because Ingrid had never said anything like that to her, but she let it go.
‘But a change is, as they say, as good as a holiday,’ Ingrid went on.
‘Righto,’ Trudy said. ‘I can fit you in after your mum.’
The problem with that, though, is that Anna has had a chance to think about it since. Does she really want to have to fuss with her hair? Maybe she could just … put it in plaits or something? That would be different. Not necessarily great. But different. Easier than hairspray and teasing and who knows what else she’ll have to do. No, she doesn’t need the bother of a hairstyle. She has enough on her plate.
She puts her hands on the arms of the chair, about to push herself up to standing, when she feels hands on her shoulders and looks up into the mirror to see Trudy giving her a knowing look.
‘Fleeing, are we?’ Trudy says.
‘Oh, um …’ Using the mirror, Anna glances to the other side of the salon, where Ingrid is laughing along with Sam, who’s brought her a cup of tea.
Sam is very good with the older ladies who come to the salon – charming without it seeming disingenuous, probably because it’s not. The sorts of questions he asks the ladies indicate that he’s a genuinely curious person, interested in their lives. Anna likes him, even if she’s never actually had a conversation with him. Yet she’s observed how he treats her mother like a person, not an old lady like so many others do, and she appreciates it.
‘She’s trying to make a run for it, Ingrid,’ Trudy calls over the noise of clients and hairdressers chatting, and Anna is mortified.
‘She’ll be fine,’ Ingrid calls back then catches Anna’s eye and winks, and smiles in that comforting way mothers have.
‘What are you worried about?’ Trudy asks, her hands still on Anna’s shoulders. ‘That I’ll make you look bad? Because I won’t. At the very least, that’s not good for business so it’s a terrible idea. But I also don’t want to make you look bad, pet, because you deserve to lookgreat.’ She picks up the cape and towel that are draped over her arm and arranges first towel then cape over Anna’s shoulders before pinning the cape closed with a hair clip. ‘So, we’re going to give you something that is easy to maintain and which also makes you feel good, okay?’
Anna nods slowly, then swallows. Tending to her hair is another job she’ll have to add to the morning routine. Does she really want to do that?
‘No blow-drying required,’ Trudy says, as if reading her thoughts. ‘Maybe a bit of spray. That’s all.’ Trudy tilts her head from side to side, her eyes narrowed. ‘I’ve been thinking about this for a while,’ she says.
‘You have?’
‘Mm. It’s good to be able to picture what you’ll look like, then I cut to that.’ She picks up some of Anna’s hair. ‘A fringe and some layers, I think,’ she says. ‘The layers will give you a little volume and because you have a wave to your hair they’ll sit nicely. If it were dead straight they wouldn’t work. And thefringe is an easy embellishment, shall we say. It’ll draw a person to look at your eyes, and you have such lovely eyes.’
‘Do I?’ Anna stares into her own eyes and tries to understand what Trudy means.
‘They’re green, which is unusual, and you have those naturally long lashes. Yes, they’re lovely. Some of us would kill for those lashes.’ Trudy smiles. ‘Josie,’ she calls, and the young woman speeds over. Anna has noticed her scurrying around when she’s here but they haven’t spoken to each other yet.
‘Hi,’ Anna says.
‘Hi.’ Josie smiles shyly.
‘Do you mind if Josie does your fringe? I’ll be here. I promise she won’t butcher it.’
Josie’s eyes widen and Trudy cackles.
‘Relax, pet,’ she says. ‘I’m joking. You’ve done fringes before. You’ll be fine.’
Anna isn’t sure, though – while an apprentice hairdresser needs to get practice, why should the practice be onher? However, as she doesn’t want to go against Trudy, she tries to arrange her face so she looks agreeable.
‘You have such good hair,’ Josie says.
Anna is wondering if she says that to everyone when Josie picks up some of her strands and inspects them closely.
