Hair Grooming at the Bar

        It was a Saturday afternoon, I was driving back from the beach and my cell rang. I got an invitation to dinner for that evening, which I accepted. Short notice, to be sure, and a girl has her pride, so I said to pick me up at nine. I wanted to get ready at my leisure, including transforming my beach hair into something kids wouldn't stare at and giggle. It was past four already.
        I got home, took a shower, went straight to Supercuts, and asked to have my hair washed and blow-dried. They looked at me quizzically, "That's all?" they asked. "Yeah, just want it to look nice, I'm going out." Some thirty minutes later I was all set to go. My date -- who had warned me he'd wear jeans and sneakers -- gave me a look-over glance and commented, "I like your hair." (And neither here nor there, but he started seriously grooming for subsequent dates, and the restaurants kept getting nicer.)
        Try as I might, I don't get the same result when I do my own blow-drying. (Exhibit 1: my picture on this blog.) The power of professionally dried hair can go a long way. Somehow, it makes us look more together. Yeah, it's all appearance, only skin deep. But sometimes, that's all we can control. And here I have to quote recently deceased writer Nora Ephron: "Twice a week, I go to a beauty salon and have my hair blown dry. It's cheaper by far than psychoanalysis, and much more uplifting." Ah, the wisdom.
        

    
       And not to make psychoanalysts or therapists nervous, but the hair salon industry is catching on, with the creation of so-called "blow-dry bars" or "dry bars" or even "blow bars". With names like Blow&Go and MyBlow, these salons are dedicated to the sole service of washing and blow-drying your hair. Set up assembly-line style, you can walk in without an appointment and in thirty minutes get rid of the demons in your hair, if not in your head. For $35, that's not a bad deal.
        
         In South Florida, I've just learned of one dry bar opening this fall in Boca Raton, and one recently opened near downtown Miami. Reportedly, women are going before work, at lunch and between work and happy hour. Men have been sighted in them too. The LA Times just reported the trend here: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-high-speed-hairdos-20120807,0,6376602.story. The Wall Street Journal, ever so alert, picked up on it earlier: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204831304576595322366093848.html
         My rush-to-Supercuts date was before any of these articles, so maybe the trend is catching up with me. As soon after a dry bar opens near me, I'll be updating my blog picture. Until then, thank you for reading me with bad hair.