my best friends and crying in my hair dresser's chair

(a picture of my beautiful best friend Amy taken this past summer)

The other day I had my hair cut and coloured at salon here in Whitehorse. The girl who did my hair (Chantal) had come highly recommended to me and I was really looking forward to my appointment.

Right away I was very impressed with her shop, her professional and approachable demeanor and just the general ease that I felt in her presence.

So after our initial consultation about what it was that I wanted done with my hair, we actually got to the real "girly hair dresser chit chat", like where are you from, what do you do, tell me about your family ect. I'm not sure what it is, but for some reason much like you would with a bartender, I just started to open up to her like I had known her my entire life.

So our conversation continued and I started to ask her, what brought you up to the Yukon and oddly enough she told me that it was her best friend who convinced her to come here. She came up one summer, met her future husband, did long distance with him and then made the big move.

The thing that struck me about her story was that it wasn't only because of her firance that she had decided to move up to the Yukon but it was because of her best friend that she had made the move...she just couldn't bear to be apart from her best friend.

I asked if they were close, her and her best friend, and in reply she told me of countless examples of why the two of them were so close. She then asked me, "so how about you, do you have a best friend?" and that's when I burst out crying.

I sat there in my hairdresser's chair bawling my eyes out because I realized just how much I miss my dearest friends who are back home (and one who is in England). I thought of Amy, my dearest and oldest best friend who I have been through everything with. I thought of Roxy, my sweet sweet friend that I can pick up where we last left off with. I thought of Eugenia who I have grown up beside with, who is a hard working, talented designer and mama. And I thought of Liz, who I hardly get to see but think of so often. And then all of a sudden I felt a million miles away from these people. I missed them so so much it hurt.

Kindly, Chantal went and found me some tissues and brushed off my tears by saying that it was perfectly okay and normal to be sad and miss my friends. Still, I felt silly and embarrassed for having lost it on a perfect stranger. As I wiped my tears and tried to change the subject I just had to say one more thing to Chantal about the matter. I told her that her best friend was very lucky and that they were both very lucky to have each other. I told her that it was very clear that they cared a great deal about each other and that that was special.

And so that is the story of why I ended up crying in my hair dresser's chair. Funny but true. I guess I'm just an emotional girl who misses and loves her friends a whole bunch.

"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same."
Elbert Hubbard

"I get by with a little help from my friends."
John Lennon