When my stepson came home from school with a new haircut, I didn’t like the way it looked, and I said so, in not the nicest way. “Oh! You got your haircut! Do you like it?” He said, “No!” Then I said, “Yeah, what did she do? It looks like a bowl cut!” He, of course, responded with, “No it doesn’t! That wasn’t nice!”
He was right, but I couldn’t believe that this hairstylist gave a 16 year old boy a cut like that. I told him I was sorry, but that I would want to know if my haircut looked bad. I then told him that if he wanted, I would take him to my hairstylist to fix it. He doubted it could be fixed, but he wanted to try.
He asked how quickly I could get him in. I called right away, and got him a Friday afternoon appt. That evening, he admitted to me that he did think it looked like a bowl cut, and that he had told his mom he hated it. He also said that his sister told him it looked like a bowl cut. I told him I appreciated his honesty and his ability to admit his true feelings. I promised him that my hairstylist could fix it.
On Friday, after his new haircut, he was so grateful. He said my hairstylist was great and that she was now his new “hair person”. He loved the way his hair looked, all spiked up and cool looking. He thanked me profusely. I loved seeing him happy and confident.
This great mood of his lasted until he told his mom that he got his hair re-cut. She was not pleased and told him that he had wasted her money. I suggested that he offer to pay her the $15 dollars she spent on his haircut, that maybe offering to pay her back would diffuse her anger.
He didn’t want to do that. He was mad at her and couldn’t understand why she would be so angry about him fixing what he obviously didn’t like. He expected her to be happy that he now liked the way he looked.
My guess was that somehow she knew I was the reason for the “fix”. She must have figured out that I was the one who solved the problem that her hairstylist created. I was the “hero”. I know in my head that this shouldn’t be a competition, but in my heart, it felt really nice being the “hero” for once.