legends · 4 min read ·
Appointment Book
A hair salon's appointment book fills with the same elderly customer, until there are twelve.
**Shear Elegance Salon — Appointment Book (stylist: Dawn Pike)**
*Saturday 11 October*
- **Time · Client · Service**
- 09:00 · Mrs. Hale · Cut & blow-dry
- 09:45 · Ms. Okafor · Colour (roots)
- 10:30 · Mrs. P. Lowe · Set & style
- 11:15 · Mrs. Lowe · Set & style
- 12:00 · Mrs. Lowe · Set & style
· · ·
**Stylist's notes, 11 October**
Three bookings in a row for a Mrs. Lowe. I thought it was a mix-up. I rang the numbers. All three are the same: a landline in Dunmere, which went unanswered. At 10:30 Mrs. Lowe came in. She is in her seventies, small, with a firm chin, a neat cardigan, and silver hair. I washed and set her, as she asked, in large rollers. She sat under the dryer for twenty minutes reading a magazine upside down.
At 11:15, she came in again.
Not another woman. The same. The same cardigan, the same silver hair, in rollers still. She said, politely: "I'm here for my eleven-fifteen."
· · ·
**Stylist's notes (continued)**
I said: "Mrs. Lowe, you were here at half past ten." She said, patiently: "I was. That was Mrs. P. Lowe. I'm Mrs. Lowe." I looked at her. I could not see a difference.
I did her again. I took the rollers out of the first Mrs. Lowe, who had gone to sit in the reception, and set the second. She chatted. She had a lovely voice. She told me about her late husband, a signalman, and his collection of keys.
At 12:00, the third Mrs. Lowe walked in. By then there were two of them in the reception. They were sitting side by side, in their cardigans, reading magazines. They did not speak.
· · ·
**Appointment book, Saturday 18 October**
- **Time · Client · Service**
- 09:00 · Mrs. Hale · Trim
- 09:45 · Ms. Okafor · Blow-dry
- 10:30 · Mrs. Lowe · Set & style
- 10:30 · Mrs. Lowe · Set & style
- 10:30 · Mrs. Lowe · Set & style
- 10:30 · Mrs. Lowe · Set & style
· · ·
**Stylist's notes (18 October)**
Four Mrs. Lowes this week, all at the same time. They arrived together, from the door, in single file, and took four chairs. I had only two stations. They said it didn't matter. They said they would take turns under the dryer.
I did them as quickly as I could. They sat in a row in the mirrors, with their rollers in, in cardigans of four different colours. They were pleasant. They asked about each other's hair. They called each other "dear."
When I took the first one's rollers out, her hair came away silver and perfectly curled. When I looked in the mirror to check the back, I saw all four heads at once, from behind, and there was no difference between them at all.
· · ·
**Appointment book, Saturday 25 October**
- **Time · Client · Service**
- 10:30 · Mrs. Lowe (×11) · Set & style
*Stylist's note: I have asked my colleague, Gemma, to help. We worked for five hours without a break. There were eleven Mrs. Lowes. We could not seat them all. They stood quietly along the wall.*
· · ·
**Stylist's notes (25 October, evening)**
When they had all been done, they thanked us, one at a time. They paid with exact change, coin after coin from identical leather purses. I counted the takings into the till. £132, for eleven sets. It came out right.
Then they went out into the street. I stood at the window and watched them walk away in a line, in their cardigans and their silver curls, and at the corner they turned, all together, towards the cemetery.
There was one left behind. A twelfth. She was sitting in the corner under the dryer, with a magazine upside down. The dryer was off. Her rollers were cold.
· · ·
**Appointment book, Saturday 1 November**
- **Time · Client · Service**
- 09:00 · Dawn Pike · Cut & blow-dry
*Stylist's note: the booking is in my own writing. I did not make it. I rang my own number. It rang in the salon, in the back, in the kitchen, where there is no phone.*
*I went to look. In the chair in front of the mirror, with a gown on, sat the twelfth Mrs. Lowe, with her hands folded. She looked at me in the glass. She smiled. She said: "Whenever you're ready, dear. I'll set you."*