Crowning Glory Conundrums

We wish it weren't, but hair is everything!

- Madhumita Gupta

BEAUTY PARLOURS always make me nervous. No matter how warm their smiles or gentle the lilting string music, the very thought of placing the burden of one’s appearance in the hands of a stranger sends a chill up my spine. Most days, I am happy to look the other way while crossing a salon. But then, along comes a friend with poreless skin and bouncy, stylish hair. Or worse, a wedding invite lands in the mail. The gauntlet has been thrown down.

Daydreams are now populated with montages of beautiful women radiating with the glow of Aphrodite, not a strand out of place. Reflective surfaces, no longer my friend, chide me at every turn. My own efforts having spectacularly failed, I soon find myself walking with steps heavy with trepidation towards the mirrored lair of MUA’s (make-up artists) and follicular engineers.