Today I had a hair appointment through Living Social. When I moved to NC a few years ago, I had to leave my most favorite hair dresser ever! Natalie was awesome and my hair never looked as good as it did after she was done working her magic.
Being down here as a poor grad student made me have to give up going to a nice salon and getting the same kind of treatment as what Natalie and her co-workers provided at George's back home. I just don't have the income in NC as I did when I was teaching up in PA hence the vouchers I get from Living Social and Groupon. Over the last 3 years, I've gone to some nice places and some places I question. I've met some really nice hairdressers and others, I've not seen again. The way I look at it, you get what you pay for, and I don't ask for much at the appointments, just to please cover up the gray (guess I worry too much?). ;)
So, this morning when I went to my appointment, I had no expectations. After missing the turn several times and going around the block twice, I finally found my way into the empty salon. My hairdresser greeted me with a warm smile. Let's call him Winston.
As Winston got down to business with picking out the color for the highlights and the root color, we made small talk. As he was about to put the root color on, I gave the obligatory spiel of, "Oh by the way, I wear hearing aids and they will need to come out as they can't get wet but don't worry, I can read lips as long as I see you in the mirror". He laughed and said, "I am the same way!"...which is definitely not something I've heard in other salons. I peered at him through the mirror, specifically at his ears, and didn't notice any hearing aids. So what did he mean by his remark?! It turns out he chooses to not wear his hearing aids; an act that used to irk me as a teacher and baffles me personally...Then again, after the last three years of paying $300+ per appointment, constantly having to buy hearing aid batteries from CVS, and currently living with embarrassing squealing hearing aids since the molds don't fit correctly nowadays, I sometimes sit back in awe at all the money that is being spent on this technology in comparison to the peace and quiet of not wearing them (but then as one of my students so eloquently recently said, "I would be shut out from the world").
When I asked Winston why he stopped wearing his hearing aids, he shared that for his other job at the airport, the noises are too loud and hurt his ears when he wears his hearing aids. Throughout the 4 hours I was there, we learned that we're both the same age, we both have twin brothers, and we both were born prematurely and lacked oxygen which is what we think is the cause of the hearing loss. Interesting stuff!! Winston then shared with me the he also has vision loss and a prosthetic left leg and he went to the school for the deaf as a child where he learned sign language (but nowadays he doesn't use it and has forgotten most of it). He wondered aloud if the reason he's so independent is because he "had to go away to school at such a young age and away from his family". He also shared that he attended the general education school in his neighborhood from 9th - 12th grade and had a "lady go to all my classes with me to interpret". He referred to himself as being deaf blind when joking about having trouble reading the printing in the appointment book but I was dying to ask how he identifies himself and had to refrain from asking my interview questions from my dissertation...lol! Of all the salons in the town to go to and of all the hairdressers to work on me, here was someone who had background experiences related to my professional and personal lives.
I didn't share with him just what exactly it is I do or what my research interest is (identity of those with hearing loss/special needs in relation to mainstream society) but rather just spoke in general terms saying I'm "back in school and working" at the local college. Something he said today really struck a chord though...I can't help but wonder if others, with hearing loss, might feel the same way regarding independence. I think from the outside looking in, one might assume a person with hearing loss would feel dependent upon others to translate for them something they didn't hear, or to ask for repetition, or to sit out the swimming party rather than relying on a buddy to tell you what's happening. Or does the person feel independent because he or she is able to try to fill in the missed words or information through use of context clues and process of elimination? I know for me, it probably goes both ways but swings more heavily toward the independent side but is that a result of the hearing loss or a personality thing? Who knows?!
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