Last week I was in Salsa class as usual, doing my twirls and twists religiously. All the women get to dance with all the men in class and vice versa to ensure no one is stuck with a bad partner or no one hogs all the time of a good partner. So T ended up standing in front of me ready to go. T is one of those tall, dark and handsome types. He is also just out of college with nothing much to do, has a great wardrobe and clearly plenty of time to beef up his muscles. He has long, straight hair (a lot like Mahindra Dhoni in his pre-cut days). All in all the kind of guy who would have had any college kid tongue tied and who amuses me greatly by always looking in the mirrors on the walls while dancing. And out of the blue he asked ‘So how often do you wash your hair?’
This is the type of question that makes anyone want to pray for sudden death or a fairy godmother who can do a decent hair job before you can blink. Coming from one of those effortlessly well-groomed types, I was upset, tearful and irritated all within a span of 10 seconds. Then voila! It struck me that today my hair was at its bouncy best. I had spent half the morning washing it and then the evening getting it cut and set. There was no way my hair was a mess.
So confidently I looked at T in his eye and asked ‘Why do you ask?’ T just gave an enigmatic smile and it was time to switch partners.
The rest of the evening, notwithstanding my new hair cut, I kept wondering if my hair smelled. Resultantly half the time I looked like one of those possessed people who have their hair hanging over their faces. Worse still, like a person possessed by a dog since I kept sniffing at my hair too. If my hair had not been a mess to begin with, it definitely was by then.
In the end, my pride did not let me ask T what was with the question. Not to mention I wanted to maintain my cool working woman superiority and not display flashes of college-like vanity. After talking to a friend I just convinced myself T must have been looking out for tips on great hair and still being a kid did not phrase it better.
But I am waiting for the day when I can ask him ‘So do you ever look at anything other than the mirror?’
2 comments:
A little confirmation from a guy that might very well have posed the same question (and other stupid ones) some years ago, when he was a recent college graduate :).
He was probably only trying to make conversation, and his little brain could not come up with anything better than that little excuse of a question. And even if did notice something different about your hair, it was probably something good. If he had seen something bad, he would not have brought it up, costing himself a "chance". Because in all probability, any tall, dark, handsome guy just out of college, that has a lot of time to beef his muscles up and has long straight hair, will not let go of any "chances" that come their way, however improbable their chances of making it may be. :)
Funny question that ! :)
I still stick with my original opinion - your hair smelt so good that he was wondering how often it must be washed to smell so nice :-D!
But that really is one weird question to ask near-strangers!
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