Thanksgiving Salon

November 29, 2017 – Oxford, Mississippi, USA

Taylor Tanner laid the aluminum foils out on the tray and then meticulously mixed together the hair coloring. She already knew what her next client wanted – a warm, honey blonde – and Taylor took pride in getting the shades exactly right.

When Kayla Sanders arrived ten minutes late and took her spot in Taylor's chair, she ran through her usual list of things keeping her life chaotic and busy.

"And look, you've got to do something about my roots," Kayla finally said to Taylor.

"I've already got your color mixed up," answered Taylor.

"You know me so well, it's scary sometimes."

Taylor ran her fingers through Kayla's hair. She set the first foil strips and painted on the color from her mixing dish. "So tell me what else is new with you," she said, almost automatically.

Almost as automatically, Kayla talked about her two boys and what a handful they were. Between soccer, basketball, flag football, and preschool, Kayla felt like a fulltime Uber driver.

"So how about Thanksgiving? Did y'all stay around here or go somewhere?" asked Taylor.

"Oh Thanksgiving! What a relief that's over," replied Kayla. "It's like we're forced to have it with my in-laws. And no matter what I say, my mother-in-law wants to control everything."

"Yeah, you've told me about her," said Taylor, as she continued to work on Kayla's hair.

"It feels like she's judging me every second we're together. Like I'm not good enough for her son or something. All these passive aggressive comments about gratitude and what I'm wearing and how I keep my house."

"She sounds like a nightmare," said Taylor, absentmindedly.

"I kept telling her we should have Thanksgiving at a restaurant instead of at her house. That way she didn't have to spend all day cooking. It might be a little more expensive, but to me, it would be worth it to avoid the work and hassle. What I was really hoping for was getting out of spending all day with them. I mean, we eat all this food and then sit around staring at each other, pretending to be interested in football."

"Yep, sounds about right," Taylor said, agreeably.

"I hate when I eat too much. Now I'm worried about our Christmas pictures. I'm thinking about that cool sculpting for my chin, where they freeze the fat away."

"We've got a girl who can do that in the salon now," said Taylor.

They discussed fat freezing as Taylor continued to add foils and hair color. Kayla wanted to know if the fat really disappeared and whether it made people look younger or older when it was gone.

"You need a certain amount of smoothness in your face," said Kayla, looking at herself in the mirror while sucking in her cheeks and pushing at her neck with her fingers.

As Taylor finished up the color treatment and walked Kayla to one of the heat-lamp chairs in another room, Kayla said, "I totally forgot something. When I'm done, remind me to tell you the Thanksgiving disaster story."

"Don't worry, I'll remind you. You need any water or anything?" asked Taylor.

She left Kayla to heat cycle and returned to her chair to prepare for her next client. The appointment was for a hair coloring, but it was for someone Taylor had never met before. That meant she could not pre-mix the chemicals. A few minutes later, the receptionist arrived at Taylor's chair with an older woman.