Dear 10 year old Tab

If I could write my self a letter explaining that one day in the far far future I was going to be sitting in a business class trying to discover my WHY for becoming a hair stylist 14 years into my career, I think it would go something like this…

Dear Tab,

I know this is going to sound crazy, but trust me I know you. I know that you have always wanted to feel pretty, and kept up. I know that for years you didn’t mind getting your hair brushed so hard to get the tangles out because you craved the touch. I know that on head lice check days would gladly go first and then request to be checked again, because you craved the touch. The soft gentle pick like things combing through your very think very course curly hair. And I also know that you frequently asked the school nurse to check. I know you hated taking baths because sitting in that dirty water was so gross to you and you knew that fancy people with fancy pretty hair never did that. You wanted to take a shower because all the dirt and grim comes off in the shower and goes down the drain. Also the water flowing on your head felt amazing.

You are probably wondering why it is I know all of these things about you, well it’s because when you are 37 years old someone is finally going to ask you WHY you chose to be a hair stylist. And the easy answer will be “I like to make people feel pretty”. I however know that the real answer is you know what it feels like to be a a dirty, tangled, unkept child, that longed for the personal contact and touch that every child craves. You found it in, the school nurse checking for lice, in whoever was tending to you at the time roughly trying to tame your wild hair, you found it in the massage of the shower water beating down on your head.

At the end of a long work week in the salon, when your three beautiful children are tucked in bed you are going to finally write it all down and accept that you became a hair stylist because you wanted to give others the love and attention of touch that you searched for. You want to make them feel pretty. You want them to feel fancy. You want them to feel like they are worth a million smiles, a trillion hugs, and zillion touches. Your super power in life is going to be touch, you are going to touch people lives by making their hair feel and look amazing. I know as a little girl you always felt dirty, and dingy and worthless because your hair, skin and clothes didn’t look like the other little girls. I’m sorry you felt that way, but I wouldn’t take it away from you because if I did then you may not have grown up to use your super power.

Love Me.