So the day was to be a good day, my sister and I were intending to go to The Aveda Hair Institute in downtown Portland. After a few weeks of planning and finally making an appointment we were set to meet. It was supposed to be a fun day of hair cuts and a pedicure, but started all wrong. We should of known from the start our day was doomed. We were struggling with parking and finally came across a parking structure that actually had space. I had no idea what i was getting myself into for parking but since it was only $6.95 for a whole day I thought why not. So in my big mini van I begin to climb the narrow windy path to the doomed parking structure. I went about two levels and thought there would be parking on the second level, as I circle around I realize i have run myself into a wall and there is no way to turn around. I in a space a little wider than my care and I am now needing to back out from the direction of which I came. There was no way at all to turn around and I have cars on all sides of me. I was beginning to panic and sweat was pouring out of me. I was seriously about to freak out, and somehow I managed to back around and make it to the top level where I was sure to park in a place I would have no problem getting out of. In the mean time my sister found parking for her much smaller vehicle in the same structure. So we load Kale into the stroller and head out of the structure, there is no elevator so we have to get out the same way we came in. This consisted of me and my sister walking down a steep ass ramp with a baby in a stroller. it was a site I tell you. this should of been a clear indication to us that our day was only going to get "better".
We finally are at Aveda and ready to get our hair cut. Upon walking into the salon, my sister, who is nine months pregnant, goes straight to the bathroom and I wait. While waiting a young lady comes up to me and says, " ummm do you have someone coming to watch the baby?" I was intending on just letting him chill in the stroller while I got my hair cut and if I needed to hold him I would, but I have done this many times with my babies and never seemed to have a problem. So I simply looked at the woman and said no, I told her I was planning on just letting him hang with us. She looked at me as if I were crazy and said, " oh no he is not allowed in here." I was a bit shocked and was really unsure of what to say. Then she proceeded to tell me I should reschedule and "find myself a babysitter". At this point my sister comes out of the bathroom looking excited to finally be getting our much needed hair appointments. I proceed to tell her that I am not going to be getting my hair done but she could stay, and I started to explain why. At this point another woman comes over and was trying to give us her reasoning as to why a four month old harmless baby can not be in the salon. My sister says some thing about maybe it is because of the chemicals or something and this woman looks straight at us and says....."it is really for your own personal safety, there is hair flying everywhere and we don't want the baby to get hair slivers, also there are a lot of sharp objects." I kid you not hair slivers....hair slivers, I have NEVER heard of hair slivers....not only that but I would like to know how my four month old son, who can not even sit up is going to injure himself on pointy objects. Apparently they were thinking he could jump out of his stroller that he was fastened into and maybe grab a pair of scissors and poke his eye out? Honestly I was a bit confused. My sister is also a little confused at this point. This is the kicker, they did not even want him in the salon at all, I could not even get my hair cut and have my sister wait and hold the baby, they proceeded to tell her that she could take the baby outside and walk around the block a few times while I got my hair cut and then we could switch and I could walk the baby around while she got her hair cut. To me this all seems a little bizarre. They went on to tell us that is says right here..... CHILDREN SHOULD BE CARED FOR..... My sister went on to tell them that I would be caring for my baby, it is not like I was parking him out on the street corner while I was inside, although they probably would of been fine with that. In the end we left and did not get anything done. We just walked off with dirty hair and ugly toes, both still in shock that a beautiful four month old baby was just denied access to a salon. You have got to be kidding me, I would like to know what these people were thinking and really I can come up with no reason as to why he should of not been allowed in there. I will say that I can understand why they may not want my six year old to be running around in there as she possibly would hurt herself with a pair of scissors, but a four month old...really? Has our society really come to dislike children this much or am I totally in the dark about being a parent?
