How Do You Like Your Haircut?

There's this great scene in The Rock where Sean Connery has been released from prison, and he needs major cleaning up. New clothes. A haircut. So the police take him to the Fairmont, and the hotel barber (um, excuse me? stylist) comes up to turn him from "a grunge thing" into something more respectable, so he can break into Alcatraz and kick all kinds of home-grown terrorist ass. Sean Connery could never do that with scraggly hair.

After the haircut, there's this scene where Sean (we're on a first-name basis in my world) tries to break free, but first he throws John Spencer over the roof, attached only by some kind of cord. People get hurt. The guards don't notice because they're busy eating. And the stylist watches the whole thing while cowering in the corner of the elevator.

You know the scene. You've seen the movie so many times that you also play the game "Who Dies the Worst Death". You can admit it.

So, the point is that all this violence happens, and gruff tones are used, and our poor stylist is totally freaked out because Sean (with his new, neat haircut) is such a badass. When Sean gets in the elevator, the stylist, who looks like he might pee his pants, says he doesn't care about anything. He won't tell about the escape. He doesn't care what Sean did or didn't do. He just wants to know, "How do you like your haircut?"

And that sentiment, friends, is one I understand.

I've mentioned before, and I'm sure it will come up again, that there is no greater compliment to one who makes gifts for others to know that it is really liked and appreciated. Used. Worn. Shown off. It's sometimes hard for us to sing our own praises, and it's easier to play down compliments with an, "It wasn't that hard," or "It's not perfect. Let me show you the mistakes." (I'm working on this. I'm trying to say just "Thanks," instead of all that other garbage. I'm a work in progress.)

It meant so much to me to get these photos, then. The smaller hat is for the baby about to be born, but in the meantime, her older sister is making sure her dolly's head stays warm.




It makes me feel wonderful to know that the hats are being used, that someone loves them, and that someone new to the world is going to feel that love.

It's not as important as breaking into Alcatraz to save five million people from an attack of a deadly nerve gas, but it ranks up there.