A Favorite Story of Mine

A long time ago there was a hair designer in Toronto. One day a client walked in and told him of her appointment with a dermatologist. Okay, I’ll drop the fairy tale style. But this did really happen.

My client was in her 20’s back then. She was very young and very attractive and still in school. But she had been thinning since she was in her late teens and had been wearing a postiche from me for a a little over a year. She decided to see her mother’s dermatologist to see if there was anything that could be done.

While she was waiting the doctor asked if a colleague of hers could join them. When my client said ‘yes’ another doctor came in. Her dermatologist started out by saying that “everybody loses hair”, it was “natural” and its “a cycle” and “nothing to worry about”. She was “young” and there was no need to “panic”. Besides, her hair “looked great”.

After this rather condescending soliloquy my client looked at her quietly, raised her hands to her head, there was a click-click-click sound, and she removed her postiche. “Doctor, this is my hair”, she said in grim triumph.

The two doctors were shaken a bit. The dermatologist asked, “Where did you get that?”

“Continental Hair in Toronto” was the reply.

“Oh, I’ve heard of them” said the other doctor.