The student was rather attractive, and as it is my habit I usually look at a girl's face to see how well she applies her makeup (we're all hoping the girls never look back the same way when we're dressed and out in public!). Although she had to wear glasses to see her work, she did have a very pretty blue eye shading and I commented on how nice it looked. After this we did get into some small talk about me coming into the beauty school and she then mentioned that some of the hippies come in to have their hair washed and curled so it looks more kinky and disheveled. She said, "That kind of man I can't stand but you are the kind of man I wouldn't mind having to manicure." Several times while I was sitting there, a student would come over and bring a woman who was to have her hair dried. Even with several vacant chairs beside me, the students always seemed to manage to put the woman right down beside me. I would steal a look in their direction and receive a rather furtive glance and/or a haughty look from the woman under the drier in effect saying — What are you doing here? In fact the last person to sit next to me was more or less coerced into that chair and I could hear her mumbling to the student about being so located as the student went away laughing! I didn't realize my invasion of a woman's domain was going to cause ripples. However, nothing came of it but friendly teasing from the students.
When she was nearly finished, the instructor, the same one that I had introduced myself to on Friday, came over and looked at the finished product and said, "Oh, they look very nice. We'll have to put something on those nails as a preservative. Would you like clear nail polish? Sur- prised and pleased (I have since learned from them and from Susanna in New York that in the east men do use clear nail polish and it is acceptable) I was extremely tempted to accept that offer but due to my engagement I thought better of it. I hesitated before answering and finally I said, “No, I'll defer for now." But then she had another pre- servative which is a powder put out by Revlon which is buffed on and only gives a slight sheen. The only problem was that they didn't know where the buffer went because due to some changes in procedure they didn't need to buff nails anymore, they used nail polish. So the instructor and student went looking for the buffer and after ten minutes gave up. It was a nice idea while it lasted!
Thus ended a very pleasant hour and a half interlude at a cost of only $1.50!
31