Fringe benefits: an ode to suburban hairdressers
Confidante, therapist, friend, lifeline… The local salon has long provided more than just a new ’do
One of my earliest memories is sitting on the bonnet of a Silver Cross pram, my baby brother asleep inside, while Mam pushed us to the local hairdresser to touch up her perm. I could, of course, be making this whole thing up, reconstructing this rose-tinted fantasy as a childhood memory of my own. I’m not even certain a Silver Cross ever graced our front door. And I’d have been too big a lump to be sitting upon its apron, as well as older in this memory than would have been possible. So, yes, making it up is highly probable.
But one thing I know is true is that around that time, I became obsessed with our local hairdressers. This tiny universe of transformation sandwiched between the newsagents and chemist of the local L-shaped shopping complex in the newly exploding suburb of Dublin 15.
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