After an unfortunate haircut last December, my shortest layer is still six inches above my longest layer. Braids aren’t possible without bobbypins. Ponytails are still awkward. I’m working on evening it all out, but it’s definitely a work in progress. So when I go to the salon every month or so, I’m looking for expert hands.
Lise, a Canadian beauty who works with me here in the office and has tumbling blonde locks, recommended Eli at the Silver Scissors Salon here in Ottawa. Looking them up online briefly, I found their location, then went on to look at the list of Google results for this particular hair salon. It had a few relative articles: there’d been a fire earlier this year that had wiped out a whole shopping center: restaurants, coffee shop, and several local businesses, including Silver Scissors.
I made an appointment for an early time and showed up in t-shirt and jeans. Since the fire, the salon is temporarily operating in a spa. But it was seamless, as if the salon had always been there: no signs of moving or chaos. Eli Saikaley turned out to be an imposing, tanned man with silver hair standing straight up on end. He said, “may I?” and pulled the clip from my hair, brushing it all out over my shoulders with his fingers. “These are very nice natural highlights,” he commented. I could sense over thirty years of experience in his fingers as he worked. “Ah,” he said, when it had all fallen into perfect order. I explained my bad haircut and he sent me to get a wash.
“Are you on summer vacation now?” asked Amanda, washing my hair. I wondered briefly if she had mistaken my age or if summer vacation is a norm for Canadians. As it turns out, she mistook my age and we laughed about how my clothes made me look like a college girl.
Back in the chair with Eli, I asked, “So how did you get started in this business?” He looked off into the distance and laughed… at the memories, I think. He began telling me his story, and it was fascinatingly unusual. Apparently he’d begun his career as an accountant, but then started working part-time for a salon. The work, the environment, he loved it all and before long decided to put his accounting skills to use in a different way: running his own business. But quickly talk turned to the recent fire (all the while he was trimming, trimming, trimming) and his plans to re-open at yet another address, 877 Bank Street, on July 9th. As I listened I could sense the energy he poured into this endeavor on a daily basis. The fire had only heightened Eli’s urgency; his drive to make a success of the salon he owned was constant and had been for many, many years.
I was finished up quickly and went back to work with my hair styled over one eye, feeling a bit like a show pony. What a wonderful salon trip! I got a great fix for my layers, sure. But unlike most other salon visits, this one gave me food for thought, and it’s made the blog as one of my most interesting Canada experiences to date. Eli, all the best as Silver Scissors bounces back and continues to grow, as I know it will.
~The Dauntless Princess~
