Day 23 of the Apocalypse, Ground Zero, Gerton, NC pop. 231

This is a superficial post because you know what? I deserve it.

The week of the hurricane I was due for a haircut.

I attempted to call my salon on Jeff’s working cell phone three days after the hurricane hit, to cancel my appointment. We were still trapped on our mountain and couldn’t get into town.

The call wouldn’t go through. The error message said the phone line didn’t exist anymore.

I eventually got an email from my salon two weeks later saying the salon was completely flooded and was temporarily relocated. The email indicated my stylist was still dealing with the aftereffects of the hurricane. They weren’t sure when/if she would be available to cut my hair.

Of course, I prayed for her, hoping that she and her family were safe. That is still the prayer for every person we know here in Western North Carolina.

May they be safe.
May they be warm.
May they be fed.
May their home be intact.

But the thing you need to understand is that it took me 12 long years of living here to finally find the perfect hairstylist.

It was no small feat on my part a year ago to get on the shortlist of clients my stylist Valerie would see. She is in high demand and only works a few weeks each month.

Valerie gets everything about my hair, and doesn’t ask me annoying questions like, “How much should I trim off?” or “Where do you want your hair to be parted?”

No one knows the right answers to these questions. We’re all just making wild guesses in an attempt to placate our stylists.

Valerie never asks me questions. She just does her magic.

It felt too overwhelming to contemplate finding another hair stylist in the midst of an apocalypse, or really at any time in the foreseeable future.
In an attempt to comfort myself, and get my hair handled, I took sewing scissors and hacked at my bangs.

It did not go well.

So Jeff, bless his heart, tracked down our hair stylist on Instagram, and she invited us over to her house yesterday afternoon, to cut my hair as well as Jeff’s.

Valerie’s house didn’t sustain any damage. In fact, she had a hurricane-resistant metal roof put on only weeks before Helene struck.

It was so completely comforting and life-giving to get my hair cut. Thank you Valerie for your quiet, calm environment, good company, and fantastic haircut.

This is the part of this new reality we are in, that I deeply appreciate. Most of us are doing what we can to positively impact others, regardless of what’s going on for us personally.