Standing in line to place my order, I noticed the young cashier behind the juice counter. Specifically, I noticed her hair. It was such a lovely colour that I tried to think of stealth ways I could take a phone photo of her so I could run to my hair stylist and say, ‘this, this is the colour I want to be instead of my messy, dark, old hair.’
Her hair also seemed naturally curly but curled in a way that didn’t seem to frizz and had that youthful shine that my hair no longer seemed to have. This girl behind the counter with her youth and shiny hair seemed full of possibilities. And I somehow wanted to capture that if only through getting the same shampoo.
When I got to her to place my order, the first thing she said was, “I love you hair.”This took me a moment to process but then I replied, “How funny, I love yours! I want your colour!”
She laughed and told me she wanted my curls. And then then her co-worker who had been standing next to us the entire time said, “you both realize you have the exact same hair.”
The girl and I just kind of looked at each other as if to say, “no we don’t.” And somehow, perhaps because we both needed to prove it, we both put up a strand of hair against the others.
Our hair was the exact same.
Same colour, same texture, same curl.
She took my order, I took my juice, and neither of us said a thing. Because at that moment I think we both realized that what we both envied and wanted was something we didn’t think we had.
And we did.