There I was, restocking the shelves, humming along to Adele, imagining us as the best of friends when I heard the all too familiar door chime. I turn to the door, smiling, “Hello there, how ya doin’ today?” to which I get silence. She saw me, I know. She looked right through me actually. So, I wander over to her and ask if I can give her a hand, to which she snarls “What did you say?!?!”. So I clarify I was just asking if she needed a hand finding what she needed or if I could be of any assistance. “Well, are you a hairdresser?” She asks. “No, I am not. I do know all the product lines and have been to many classes so I am sure I can help you today.” I say with my mega watt smile. “Pfft…doubt it” she states. CHALLENGE! is all that resonates in my mind.

Before I finish today’s tale, which I come out looking fabulous as always, I must tell you all something. I cannot stress this point enough. STOP BEING NASTY. Just stop. You look like an ass, you really do. If you get your kicks picking on sales people and stylists, there is a variety of medications to help you.

Since I want to enlighten and educate, I have compiled a little list. It is not the sales person/stylist fault if ;

– your husband is having an affair

– you chipped your nails

– you bought crappy product from the drug store and now people think you are auditioning for the part of the scarecrow from the land of Oz

– you hate your life

– your underwear is riding up

– the last salesperson didn’t help you

– your car has a flat tire

I could go on and on, I think you get the picture. Back to today’s tale. So, as the women stood there, her hand on her hip, smirking with pride at her go to grade nine back of the school picking on the nerdy boy phrase, I smiled and told her “I may not be a licensed stylist, but I know more than the majority of  stylists out there about product, since I sell over 30 lines and have been in the biz over 10 years, so why don’t you tell me what your “hair” issue is and we can go from there.” She just stood there, gaping, quite upset I am sure that I didn’t get nasty  or cry. She wanted a fight, but she wasn’t gonna get one. Long story short, she was coming out of a breakup and she didn’t know how to do her hair. She had just gotten a cute cut but the stylist didn’t show her how to do it, or tell her what product to use. So that’s when I said “I can fix this. I can help you to do your hair.”.  I found her the product she needed and as I rang through her purchase, she apologized. I told her it was alright, that I have had worse things said to me. I told her I was happy to help her. I did ask her to try to be nicer to the next person she spoke to. She just stared at me. I explained I meant no disrespect, but that she was lucky she ran into me because there are many people out there that would not have been so kind.

In the immortal word of Bill & Ted – “be excellent to each other”.