A want, not a need

I had a haircut at Diva Salon and Spa, which is on the top floor of the Sovereign shopping mall in Liguanea. It offers all sorts of services to treat one's body. It is a hair salon, it offers various kinds of massage, it does manicure and pedicure, it does facial, etc.

I used to get my haircut there before, but when I called to make an appointment this time, the receptionist was not the same person. I became nervous. Maybe the hairdresser is not there anymore.

When one moves to a new place, finding a right hairdresser is as major a challenge as finding a right apartment. I felt nervous to imagine the prospect that I was going to face a new hairdresser, and the possibility that I would have to start hunting for a right hairdresser. To my great relief, I saw the same hairdresser come out when I arrived there, and I was filled with joy. She is very good, she knows my hair, and I really like the way she carries herself: she is laid back and at the same time very professional.

The management seems to have changed in the meantime, however. It was managed by Chinese women before, and according to my hairdresser, they went back to Hong Kong. I told her that I noticed that many shops had closed down or had management changes while I was away. It must be the economy: it's a bad time. She agreed and said customers at the salon were definitely decreasing. People don't pay for what the salon sells anymore, she said, because it's "just a want, not a need."

Her articulation in simple brief words struck me, and so I took a photo of the nail polish shelf of the salon, to represent a "want."

Shampoo and cut together cost 2700JMD (about US$40).

Today's Gleaner reports on the impact of the current financial crisis in U.S. on the lives of Jamaican people, i.e. remittances sent from Jamaican people in U.S. to their families in Jamaica are beginning to go down. http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20081019/lead/lead2.html