Au Naturel

During my visit with mom, she asked me to make her an appointment to color her hair.  Since mom has not been able to leave the premises due to her mobility and fear for the past few months, she has no choice but to get her hair done by the only beautician they have at this location.  

I have already addressed the situation in earlier blogs that Sharon* specializes in old fashioned roller sets and putting her clients under those old fashioned dryers. Most residents have gray or white hair.  To be honest, I am not sure if there are but a handful of women if any that have their hair colored there. 

No longer is having mom’s hair done an event for us to do together.  The beautician here does not set up an actual appointment for her clients.  She informs them what day she will come for them, but they do not know what time.  Unlike the other location where the beautician does one or two people and you can enjoy their company here it is like an assembly line. At any one time there could be four or five residents waiting there.

Mom never feels special and to be honest her hair never looks like before. I am just thankful her hair is clean.  When mom used to get her hair done at the other location with me, she would get several compliments on how nice she looked.  Of course, mom always felt so proud.  Those days are over.

I assured mom that I would check with Sharon* to see if she would be able to color-treat mom’s hair this week.  Her comments were that mom’s hair is damaged and she feels too brittle to color treat her hair.  If I still want to have mom’s hair colored, she would not take any responsibility should mom’s hair fall out or break off.   In fact, she requested that should I choose to still require her to color mom’s hair that I must sign a letter stating I am holding her harmless.

My gut feeling told me that this was a no win situation.  I will just have to explain to mom that she will not be able to have her hair color treated anymore.  I am just thankful her hair is clean.   

To some woman going gray is totally acceptable, but to mom not being able to have her hair color-treated is just one more pleasure taken away.