Senior stylist Ben:
Comic printed zip-up hoodie (Topman)
White vest (Topman)
White board shorts (Rip Curl)
Flip-flops (Animal)
Total est. cost: £110
‘Unbelievable!’
They’d had to wait over an hour for the haircut appointment. Then, because it was being filmed, senior stylist Ben fussed and tweaked and trimmed for a full three hours before he declared himself happy with the cut.
When the very first decisive slices were made and Tina could actually hear her heavy lengths of hair thwack against the ground, she’d had a sudden attack of nerves.
‘I’m going for emergency supplies!’ Annie had declared and run out of the salon.
She’d made it back fifteen minutes later with a half-bottle of champagne. Champagne was Annie’s drug of choice, applied in most emergencies because it was comfortingly delicious, reassuringly expensive and, due to the bubbles, extremely fast acting.
She knew some people swore by herbal droplets of Bach Rescue Remedy, but in Annie’s opinion a glass or two of fizz was guaranteed to make people see any disaster in a rosier light.
‘Drink,’ she’d ordered Tina, who was already down to an ear-length bob but once again looking excited, rather than terrified.
‘I think I might need some of that too,’ Bob had told her quietly, when the camera was on pause.
‘Why?’ Annie asked.
‘Finn’s been on the line. Wants to know what’s taking us so long. He’s at the hotel, desperate to see the footage. At the rate this guy’s cutting, it’s going to be a late one.’
By six o’clock, several half-bottles of champagne had been downed in the salon and a party atmosphere was growing.
Just as Annie had predicted, the haircut was a triumph. Tina looked stunning with her thick, dark fringe falling just above her eyes. Everyone wanted to know where she’d had her tattoo done and Ben was busy taking more Polaroids of her haircut and asking her to come in at the weekend and do a proper photo shoot for the salon window.
Tina was laughing and crying with happiness. She insisted on phoning her mum to break the news – then got Julia on the phone so that she could tell her too.
‘Mummy’s cut her hair really short. Yes – really short! A bit like a boy’s, but quite girlie too,’ Tina explained.
And yes, it was a very wispy feminine cut, with Ben busy waxing and tweaking tendrils so that they formed tiny curls against her neck.
‘You have to get changed,’ Annie urged Tina, ‘show everyone the full look.’ She pressed the bags into Tina’s hands and ushered her into the salon’s toilet.
When Tina strutted out in her heels, tight trousers and corset, the small crowd of hairdressers cheered her on.
‘Unbelievable!’ Ben told her, through the whoops and whistles of her new admirers.
Annie had only once been backstage after a fashion show and this was just what it felt like in the Taylor Salon right now. As if something amazingly creative and successful had just been pulled off by team effort. Maybe for a moment or two, they were all allowing themselves to feel that a star had been born.
Maybe she would only ever shine in her own little circle, but Tina was definitely star quality.
Shyly, she approached Annie.
‘Shoulders back,’ Annie reminded her, ‘head up, strut your stuff.’
Even Annie could hardly believe it was the same girl. The shy, baggy, self-contained person she’d met this morning, who’d forgotten how to dress up, who’d not been out for years – let alone come out…
She was being revealed. The layers and the hair had been stripped away and the new Tina was emerging from her cocoon.
Tina stretched out her arms and wrapped them round Annie, who hugged her fiercely back. ‘Way to go, girl!’ she told her. ‘You just show them. Knock ’em dead, ladykiller.’
This elicited a shriek of nervy excitement.
Bob busied himself capturing Tina from every angle. Finally, he felt he’d done enough and that it was time to pack up, drop Tina back at home and get the footage over to Finn. Another text from the producer/director had come in asking what time he thought he might be at the hotel.
‘I’m nervous,’ Bob told Annie once again as they buckled themselves back into the estate car for the journey to the hotel.
‘Don’t be silly,’ she assured him. ‘Look at the reaction Tina got from everybody. Even her mum!’
‘Yeah, but it’s off the script, Annie,’ Bob said heavily. ‘And that is a dangerous place to be.’
‘But this is a reality show,’ Annie protested.
Bob said: ‘You’ve got quite a bit to learn,’ and gave her a serious look that gave her a bad feeling.