I had a hair appointment at the Sassoon Academy today. For £5, a student from the academy would be cutting my hair under the supervision of a teacher. I think the full price is £12, but I had a coupon. When I called last week to set up the appointment, I was told to plan to be there for three hours and was asked if I wanted a classic cut or a creative cut. I chose classic. I know, boring.

I wasn't sure what to expect. When I arrived about five minutes before the appointed time, the reception area was full of women. We had to check in, pay, and then get our assigned classrooms. My classroom was four doors down and then up two flights of stairs. I sat at one of the 14 stations and waited. I chatted with the woman next to me, or rather she talked at me. I learned that she had been here before, she was a homeopath, she was a vegetarian and gluten free, that vegetarians don't get cancer (she then amended that last statement by saying they have a 30% less risk for getting cancer and vegans have 60% less risk). I interjected that genes played a role to which she agreed. She also told me that her three children have never taken any antibiotics and they are in their thirties. I also learned that she is from Jordan but has lived in the UK for over 40 years, that she came as a student and never left. She also told me that babies today have many more health problems than before and that this was because of their parents' promiscuity. She herself knew of three babies right now who had to be on antibiotics right after they were born. I was rescued from this lecture by the arrival of the two teachers and shortly after that the students. (She did continue to complain that they were running late and that they were doing things differently than before. She had an appointment with a patient at five and she would have to leave by 2:30 in order to get home in time. It was already after 2 by this point. She did stay until 3:50, leaving with wet hair and only the hair at the back of her head cut. Her stylist was left without a model.)

My student stylist was Veera from Helsinki. She was great. There was a lot of down time during the course of the afternoon, allowing plenty of time to talk, and her English was excellent. I think I lucked out with the group I was assigned. They were already stylists and were here for a one week certification program. Students in other classrooms had no experience before they came here and their classes go for a minimum of 24 weeks.

I was Veera's first Sassoon haircut and she was more excited than me. The haircuts were much more involved than you would think. James, the instructor on our side of the room would come by, show Veera the first step in the process for my particular cut, she would get all excited about it and then complete the step, then we would wait until James could get back to us to check out how Veera did, maybe fix something, then demonstrate the next step. The three hours turned into four. At the end, we took a selfie to commemorate our first Sassoon haircuts (she the giver and me the receiver) and of course we hugged, because after all we did spend four hours together. The haircut came out very well; the after photo doesn't demonstrate  that very well.

Before

During

After

Oxford Circus

Gord and I had tickets to a play and were planning to meet at the flat first and eat some leftovers. I didn't leave the Academy until almost six. At Oxford Circus it was so crowded that four trains came and went before I could board one, but I must say that at that time of day there was a train every minute. We had to meet at King's Cross station. I had a package of crisps at the theatre (and some of the leftovers when we got home).

The play was a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Shakespeare's Cymbeline, at the Barbican. Wow. First of all, we had never seen a performance of this play before. It was over three hours long, not counting the one intermission. It would have been helpful to read a synopsis ahead of time. There were close to 30 characters, and talk about subplots. The set and lighting designs were outstanding, and there was live music, which I found to be very interesting. The female vocalist was particularly good. The actors were great. This was opening night, and from all appearances things went off without a hitch. The only thing that didn't work for me was the use of projected translations of the Italian, French, and Latin spoken occasionally by the actors. It was too difficult to read and watch the actors at the same time. I would definitely see this play again.

It's 2:15 am and I'm going to post this without proofing it another time, because I want to go to bed. Hope everyone had a good Halloween.

Read: Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" (1892) from London Stories