Does your hair make a statement?

Most of my stories take place in small towns and I usually include a hair salon as one of the local businesses. In The Future She Left Behind I created Sadie’s Hair Salon—I DIPPITY DO FOR YOU.

The hair stylist in this salon is similar to a stylist I went to in Phoenix, Arizona, in the eighties AKA the Big Hair decade.

When I first met Tina, it took a moment to get over my shock at her appearance. She looked like Dolly Parton’s twin—big blond hair and hooters, tiny waist and curvy hips. Her clothes were covered in rhinestones and she wore red sparkly high heels. But Tina was more than a hair stylist-she was also a therapist. When her customers left the salon, they felt better about themselves and the problems in their lives. It was no wonder I had to book an appointment with her weeks in advance.

There’s a lot of symbolism packed into a woman’s hairstyle. I had a friend in college whose boyfriend loved her long hair. When they broke up, she chopped her hair off because she didn’t want any reminders of him.

In The Future She Left Behind the main character, Katelyn, wears her hair long because her mother-in-law hates the style. Later in the story when Katelyn cuts her hair, it symbolizes not only that she’s embracing a new identity after her divorce, but that she’s made progress in her relationship with her mother-in-law, Shirley.