The Depressed Hairdressers

I visited the very south of South America once, a town called Punta Arenas. It was the way in and out of the Torres del Paine park, where I was going for a trek.

Punta Arenas is windy, a lot of the time. It made it to no. 4 of the world’s windiest cities on a site called theworldbucketlist, only coming behind Wellington, NZ, Rio Gallegos, Argentina, and Dodge City, Kansas. I’d say that Dodge City is more a place of storm related winds (occasional, but strong when they come), and the other three are constant, daily winds.

I wondered what it would be like to be a hairdresser in Punta Arenas, and how frustrating it must be. Any coiffe, any hairstyle or do, is just going to be blown to bits as soon as the person leaves the salon. The hairdressers must go crazy, or stop caring about their work. (I imagine the dialogue, “Would you trim a bit here for me?” and the hairdresser putting their hand dramatically to their forehead and replying, “To trim or not to trim, why even bother?”)

When I was there, I imagined psychotherapy offices next door to beauty salons, to keep the hairdressers from losing it. I could also imagine a strong buddhist influence, of helping the hairdressers live in the “now” and remain detached from the future (those few seconds after leaving their salon that their work remained mostly place). Styled hair is the same as a sand mandala, here today, blown away tomorrow.

And this brings me to Neil Young (because, of course that’s where all this was going, wasn’t it obvious?) I’ll get to see him play in July, if we both live that long. The hairdresser’s dilemma made me think of his song “Falling From Above” : “Sing the song for freedom, sing a song for love, Sing a song for depressed angels falling from above”. Sing a song for depressed hairdressers, their artistry unable to withstand the winds of Patagonia. Sing a song for impermanence. Sing a song for letting go. Sing a song for living in the now.

In other news, I’ve bought a ukulele. The goal is to be able to play three songs for my friend’s birthday party in September. It’s supposed to be the easiest instrument to play. And now I will have to make up new lyrics for “Falling from Above”, replacing hairdressers for angels. Actually, that would be a good band name: The Depressed Hairdressers. I’ll have to work on that.