Hair cuts out of the ordinary

My hair dresser is not your average hair dresser. He is so good that my daughter considers a cut and head massage a necessity on any trip to Switzerland. For many years his salon was also an art gallery as well and the discussion while he cut my hair were about music, art, events in Geneva, my writing, etc. In fact I even held a book reading and apero in the salon. My writing group used the salon to launch one of their anthologies.

Yesterday I was in for a much overdue cut and relaxed. The conversation was much about reading. He asked me if I could read in French. I said yes and read a book in that language at least once a month to every six weeks. We went on to other topics often breaking into laughter. He has a silly sense of humour and appreciates mine as well.

Finished I used the loo prior to paying. When I came back, he had disappeared. Although I was tempted to pay his brother who is co-stylist in the salon, I waited.

Jean-Pierre rushed in with a bag from Payot, the bookstore next door. He handed it to me.

“Un cadeau,” he said. A gift of one of the books we were discussing written about Kabul. I promised him a report (oral not written) for my next hair cut.

I could find hairdressers less expensive. Some might be almost as good. None would make a hair cut an experience and I doubt if I would find one who adds to my library.