“Why did I agree to this again…?” Hari Aldaine asked with a sigh, as she stopped outside of the Under the Dryer beauty parlor. They were in a better part of town than she usually frequented, the kind where places like this took up the whole floor instead of sharing the building with another shop, and a half dozen well off women might be getting their hair done or having manicures or what have you at any given time. It was a place that Hari had never wanted to be within five blocks of if she could help it, and even if she had a good reason she was having second thoughts. 

    “Because you wanted to get all glam’d up~?” An older woman said with a smirk, “The Dryer is a great place for that if it’s what you want!” 

    Hari rolled her eyes, “Right, Mom. That’s definitely the reason.” she gestured to the door, stepping aside to allow the woman inside.

    Carol Aldaine sauntered over to the door, pausing beside it to muss her daughter’s long, brown hair, and frowning a little as she took a moment to wipe her hand. “Well, it should be, hon. You can act like one of the boys all you want, and that’s your business, but you’ve gotta have a care for the hair!”

    Hari paused at the doorstep, before taking a deep breath and walking through. “The more you talk like that, the more I wonder if I really need those replacement skates…” she said, making an effort to not breath in too much of the smell of hair care products.

    “Hey, I think this is a good compromise!” Carol said as she made a theatric show of pouting, “You get your skates, and I get to give you a makeover! It’s a win win!”

    The pair were cheerfully greeted by an older woman who had similar sort of big-haired styles to Carol. “Carol, glad to see ya!” she said cheerfully. 

    “Beth!” Carol said cheerfully, gently directing Hari to step up, “This is my daughter, Hari, I told you all about her the other night on the phone and all. Hari, this is my friend, Bethany”

    “Ma’am.” Hari said, not really looking at her. She shook her head to herself - she didn’t want to be here, but that didn’t mean she had to take it out on her. She extended a hand for Beth to shake. “Good to meet you-” 

    The hand was taken, and Hari was pulled into a hug. “Dawww she’s so cute!” she said, “Can I keep her?” 

    “Ain’t she just? Came to get her all glammed up! Think you can dip into the special goods for me?” Carol said with a smile as Hari was released, “Gwen said her customer was just the happiest with how the new shampoo made her hair shine!” 

    Hari groaned as the woman nodded and darted off into the back room. “Mom, why are you going to so much effort for this? You know I’m not going to keep it, right?” Honestly, this whole experience thus far had reinforced her desire to have as little to do with her mother’s lifestyle as she could. 

    “Because, Hari,” Carol said, “This is the kind of thing I enjoy! You look great anyway, of course, but you could look so much better if you put some effort in, and I enjoy making girls look their best whether it’s a stranger or my darling daughter!”

    Hari sighed loudly - she knew that her mom didn’t actually think she looked "great", but well, she was trying to be nice about it, and she might well believe the second part. Maybe once this was all done and she didn’t show any more interest in beauty she’d get the message. “Let’s… let’s just get it over with, alright? 

    Carol walked Hari over to one of the chairs and set the water running as Beth returned with an array of bottles and containers in her arms. “Only the best!” she declared as she carefully placed a few on the side of the sink. 

    “You’re the best, Beth,” Carol said with a smile as Hari sat down. She turned to her daughter with a smile. “Alright now hon, you can relax. Just lay back on the sink and we’ll get the usual hair-care out of the way first, alright?” 

    Hari nodded, and settled down and let the chair recline until her head was over the sink. Carol got the water going, and let it fill the sink some before she got to work washing her daughter’s hair. While like her mom, it had a natural thickness and body, it was usually pretty dirty and tied back into a ponytail; Hari had a very active lifestyle that often got it, and her, to be a mess. To make sure she didn’t miss any she took the hair tie off and let the hair fan out into the sink.

    Carol felt real good as she put a bit of the shampoo into her hands, rubbing them together a bit - she loved her job, and doing her best to make her daughter look good made it even more fun than it usually was. She started rubbing Hari’s head and hair, kneading the shampoo deep into it and making sure she didn’t miss a spot. “So how’ve things been for you and your little friends, hon?” she said conversationally.

    Hari, who had her eyes closed so she didn’t have to stare up into the light, groaned a little. “Mom, do you have to do the whole routine with me?” 

    “Well, no,” Carol said as she got another dab of shampoo, “But I don’t have to do it with the usual customers either.”

    “I know you’re not actually interested in all that, you’re just making conversation.” 

    “And what’s so bad about that? Gotta talk about something, don’t we? The relationship between the stylist and their client is important!” 

    “But I’m not going to be a client, Mom…” Hari nearly moved a hand to rub her forehead, but remembered what she was in the middle of. “I’m just doing this because you agreed to get me new skates, not because I want to.” 

    Carol frowned for a moment or two as she worked the last bit of shampoo into Hari’s hair before she moved on to the conditioner. The stuff was high quality, she could tell just from how it felt, let alone from how her daughter's hair already looked cleaner and more vibrant than it had before. She might have to check with the suppliers and see if they had a commercial version for her to use at home! 

    “I know, hon, and I’m not gonna force you to do anything, you know that,” she said after a bit, “I just wish you’d give it a try is all. Who knows, you might decide you like looking pretty, you know?” 

    Hari didn’t choose to respond to that one, instead just adjusting her seating in the chair as Carol massaged the conditioner down into her scalp. Even she had to admit it was kinda relaxing to just lie back like this, but she could do that at home instead of a beauty parlor if she wanted to! 

    After a few minutes of slightly awkward quiet, Carol turned the sink off and let it drain, and directed Hari to sit up. She started rubbing her down with a towel for a minute or two, getting her hair to be good and dry. “That’s it?” Hari said as Carol felt up a few bits of hair to make sure they were dry, “Just, a wash and done?”

    Carol smirked a bit at her daughter’s lack of knowledge. “Oh, not nearly, these appointments can take a long time!” she said, opening a drawer next to the sink and taking out a few curlers. “First I had to get it good and clean, and then dry it off, and next is to curl it up to give it volume and flair!” It was fun explaining this when moms took their daughters to get styled for the first time, and it was no less fun explaining to her own kid. “I’m going to stick these in your hair, if you could sit still for a bit - just gonna warn you, it’ll feel a little tight since you’re not used to these, but it won’t hurt. Honestly I like how they feel, if you ask me!” 

    Hari had a brief, slightly mad urge to just get up and bolt. But that’d probably make way more of a scene than this actually warranted, and the mental image of her mom’s face at that was good enough on it’s own for her to settle and bear it. “Whatever you say, Mom,” she said as Carol started wrapping her hair around the curlers. She hadn’t been kidding - they did get very tight, which was slightly annoying, but it wasn’t unbearable. As the third one came in she was struggling not to pick at them, “Alright, so now I just sit here and wait, or something?” she asked slightly irritably.

    “Well, no,” Carol said, “We’ve gotta make sure it dries out evenly, so you’ll sit under the helmet dryer and wait!”

    Hari sighed theatrically and stood up. People did this kind of thing for fun? It felt like she’d waste over an hour here at this rate! Still, she was walked over to a row of seats and dryers whirring on the heads of older women. There was some reading material, at least, but it was all in the form of magazines. 

    “You can sit here,” Carol said, gesturing to an empty seat, “And I’ll be back in a bit once it’s done drying!” 

    Hari grimaced as she sat down and Carol brought the dryer down over her hair. It felt a little odd, but not painful at least. “Alright, Mom…” she said after a bit, before lying back and closing her eyes - maybe she could take a nap or something while she waited. 

    This plan was quickly interrupted. “Oh, you’re Carol’s kid?” said a voice to her left. She cracked an eye open, and one of the women getting her hair dried was looking at her with a bright smile. “Can’t say I’ve seen you before, but she’s talked a bunch!” 

    Hari took a breath - no need to take out your frustration on the random lady. “Yeah, I’m Hari. Nice to meet you.” she said. 

    “Wendy!” the woman said, extending a hand.

    “Veronica!” Another voice said from the other side. Indeed, it was another woman. Hari extended hands to shake both of theirs, feeling a little weird. They were both evidently similar sorts of women to her mom - the whole big hair, overly friendly stuck in the 80s and 90s type.

    “So, Hari,” the first one, Wendy, said cheerfully, “Why’ve I never seen you here? You must come here often, what with your mom working here. Does she usually get it done before things open?”

    “What? No, I don’t usually come here…” Hari said, feeling strange as she said it. But she couldn’t put a finger on it…

    “You don’t?” Veronica said, “Your mom does great work! As I’m sure you’re familiar with, of course.”

    “Actually, I usually don’t let her get anywhere near my hair…” Hari admitted, “This is probably the first time since I was old enough to have a choice.”

    “Huh? Why not?”

    Why not… Why was that so hard to answer? Before, it would have been easy - she didn’t want anything to do with this lifestyle. But as she sat in that chair, chatting away while her hair dried off, she found it difficult to articulate that. 

    “I just… don’t, really? She has her life, and I have mine, and they only really intersect at home.” Hari explained, and even as she said it it didn’t sound like a real reason. 

    “What, you mean like your job? Why not look good doing it?” Wendy asked.

    “Well, no, I don’t have a job-” it was more that if she tried she’d mess it up, right-

    “I think they have an assistant opening here you could probably ask for! That’d let you match up your life with your mom’s more.” 

    It wasn’t about work, more about hobbies - martial arts, skating, all that wasn’t all that conducive to keeping a hairdo after all. She tried to say that, but when she opened her mouth the words wouldn’t come out. Was she… embarrassed about it? Well of course she was, what kind of hobbies were those for a pretty girl? But she usually wasn’t so embarrassed as to not be able to speak.

    “Yeah! I bet beauty must be something of a family hobby around the house, so it’d be fun, wouldn’t it?”

    “Oh, speaking of hobbies-” 

    The conversation dragged on and on, the two women all but forcing Hari to be involved. Her mind seemed to be a mess, as she suddenly couldn’t explain her interests or lack thereof in certain topics - and as fast as they talked, new interests were filled in. Fashion, hair, makeup. Suddenly, Hari shared a lot of interests with her mom. Or rather, she suddenly realized she did.

    Carol came back just as the others finished up. Hari waved her new friends off with a smile. “Making some friends aren’t we?” Carol said cheerfully as she waved them off as well. 

    “Yeah, they were surprisingly fun to talk to…” Hari said distractedly, as she tried to sort through her thoughts. 

    “Glad to hear it!” Carol said as she took the helmet dryer off. “Let’s get you in front of a mirror, take off the curlers and see the result!”

    She did just that, bringing Hari to an open makeup station and carefully removing the curlers. As she pulled them out, Hari’s hair fell in gentle, surprisingly red curtains - her hair had been dark brown before but had brightened up considerably from the products used. It was surprisingly big too, adding a good few inches to her height and having enough volume to extend several inches away from her head. 

    What’s with this huge hair? I didn’t have that much in the first place, did I? Hari thought, then shook her head a little, the massive curls shaking with her, It’s so big and… pretty… wait, what? 

    She’d thought she would hate it - she certainly hadn’t thought the style worked on her mom before, or anyone else for that matter. But now, it looked… good. She gently stroked it for a moment, feeling the smoothness between her fingers. In the mirror, she looked like a completely different person, and was utterly unaware of how her body had changed - her chest a bit fuller, the scars and muscles of an active lifestyle smoothed out and perfected, an extra inch or two that had nothing to do with her hair’s impressive volume. She looked far more mature, because her body was more mature. 

    And, she had to admit to herself, she loved it. 

    “Well, what do you think, hon?” Carol said after a few moments. She was a little nervous - she knew this whole thing was pushing it, and she was worried about how negative the reaction would be. 

    “...It looks great, Mom.” Hari said after a while. And it wasn’t even sarcastic, to Carol’s great surprise. “Do you… think you could do some makeup too?”

    Carol gasped and clapped her hands together. “Of course I can!” she said with delight, “I’ll get our best stuff, and you’ll be a stunner!” 

    “By the way,” Hari said as Carol started off to get the makeup, “The girls mentioned there was an assistant position open…”

    Carol could hardly believe it. “Yeah…?” she said, cautiously.

    “You think I could maybe have it? I’m thinking it could be fun to glam up some other girls…” Hari said. Yeah. That seemed right. She looked so good, and besides, she needed a job didn’t she? 

    Carol hugged her daughter super tight (careful not to mess up either of their hairdos). “Of course you can Hari!”

    Hari smiled - she might not have liked it when she came here, but now she felt like she really got her mom’s interests. And had some new ones herself in the bargain!