This is a story of my hairdresser's great sense of priorities.
I went to the hairdresser today. The salon has new owners, and only two of the original employees remain. The girl who does my hair is now the manager, and was there on her own today. While I was there a lot of people popped in to see whether she had time to do their hair, as the 17th of May is coming up (our 4th of July, only a BIG deal in Norway ;) ). Obviously, her schedule was already cramped.
So, what happens is: a young student with Bergen-dialect walks in and asks what the price for a hair cut is. Cissi, my stylist, answers 570. Oh, and by the way, please don't look up how much this is in dollars...you'll refrain from ever coming to Norway again!! The young student from Bergen wonders if she can get an appointment today (it is 5 pm, and the salon closes at 6...), and Cissi apologizes and says that there is nothing available before the 17th of May.
While this is happening some people are putting up a new sign outside the door and the new owners come in and ask Cissi a couple of questions. All the while another guy is waiting for his haircut, and I'm in the chair with lots of stuff in my hair... Now the interesting part. One of the homeless people in Trondheim comes in and asks her if she can cut off all his hair (this is literally what he says...). I can tell that Cissi contemplates her choices. There's plenty of work for her to do, and she's already running behind schedule. Nevertheless, she says, "sure, I'll do it". She doesn't agree with him on his choice of haircut though, and gives him a nice haircut instead. Afterwards he asks how much it is, and she says 100.
She gets back to work, and I can't help it but smile when she apologizes for making me wait. What can be more important than helping a poor fellow a couple of days before the Norwegian Constitution Day?
