The Things We Say

A few years ago, I was managing a hair salon in a mall in Austin, Texas. It was near quitting for me and as I was cleaning my station and doing the paper work, a gentlemen walks up to the front desk and asks for a haircut.

I politely ask him to sign in and inform him that someone will be with him shortly. At this salon, we took walk-ins only, and it was first come first serve. We worked on a rotation basis and whoever finished first took the next client.

The man looked around the salon and saw that the only other two people besides me were two men. The client looked at me and said, “Are they the only ones cutting hair this evening?” I answered him and said, “Yes.” He looked around some more like he didn't believe me. A few minutes passed by and he came back to the desk. He asked me if I could cut his hair because he didn't want a gay man touching his head.

I couldn't believe this! He said it very loudly where my two stylists could hear him.

I politely responded by telling him that they were awesome stylists. He then asked me if I could please cut his hair.

Being that I was the manager, and this man was obviously prejudice against gay people, I took him to my station, draped him and proceeded to ask how he wanted his hair cut.

I kept glancing at my two gay stylists who were both my friends. I mouthed to them, “I'm sorry.” The man told me how he wanted his hair cut and then began a gay bashing session with me.

He told me how he hated gay people, how they had no right to do what they did and so on.

Well, being that he was in Austin, Texas, I figured he was accustomed to the gay life. We have our share of gay citizens. And for the record, I am not prejudice against any one. I happen to have several friends who are gay. It's their choice and their right to be who they are.

No matter how hard I tried to change the subject, this man would not stop his ranting about how he hated gay people.

I finally finished his haircut and cleaned him up. We walked back to the front desk. He pulled out his wallet to pay, and I asked him how he liked his cut.

“It's great. Thanks.” He said.

I smiled, and in my lowest voice I could muster, I replied, “Glad you like it and I even have a set of balls between my legs.”

His face turned pale and he just turned and walked away, without paying! I didn't even care. The look on his face was worth it!

My two gay stylists began laughing and jumping up and down, saying that they couldn't believe what I did.

Looking back, I couldn't believe it either. But he was judging these two guys before he even knew who they were. I felt I had to defend their character.

I picked the phone up, called my supervisor and told on myself, before the client did.

When my supervisor caught her breath from laughing so hard, she just told me not to do it again!