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Copyrights reserved by the author. If you are in doubt, please click on 'Copyrights' and read the details. Hi-lites at Fanny's by Paul Main. There! What do you think? Dawn asked, holding up the mirror. Angela gasped at her reflection. The top of her hair was its usual colour, but underneath it had been dyed bright green, and beaded strands of hair clicked together when she moved her head. She looked like an ornamental lampshade. "Oh! Wow!" exclaimed Angela "It looks fantastic!" Dawn beamed with pride. "That course you did at hairdressing was brilliant, I can do it all now, layering, hair-extensions, dyeing, perming; the lot. "Any sign of a job yet?" asked Angela. Dawn's smile vanished. "Not yet, I'm going to the job centre on Wednesday, but with my talents it's just a matter of time, you wait and see. "Good luck, I hope something turns up," said Angela. On Wednesday Dawn went to the job centre. "Fanny's on Holderness Road is looking for a new junior", said the woman behind the desk. "Here's the address, you can start work right away." Dawn looked at the card doubtfully. 'Fanny's' didn't sound like the kind of place that was going to be used by Mel B, Kylie Minogue or Madonna! She thought salons should be called things like 'Curl-up and Dye' or 'Short and Curlies'; definitely not 'Fanny's'. Sighing, she tucked the card in her purse and set off for the high street. As she approached the hair salon, Dawn's heart sank. Fanny's was even less trendy than she expected, the window display contained a couple of cans of hairspray and a few yellowing photos of hairstyles that had gone out of fashion with Noah's ark. Inside was worse; instead of glossy magazines there was a pile of old tatty newspapers and, as for the customers, she hadn't seen such a collection of wrinklies outside the local old folk's home. "Thank goodness you're here, dear," said Fanny when Dawn introduced herself. "I'm run off my feet. Get a pinny, then you can shampoo Mrs Brownbags." Glumly, Dawn did as she was told. "So, what's it like?" Angela asked when she caught up with Dawn a few days later. "Just awful," said Dawn, "all I've done this week is wash hair and sweep the floor." "Don't worry, it won't be for long until you're doing proper hairdos" replied Angela. "Oh yes", said Dawn bitterly. "Next week I'm being promoted to sponge rollers, at this rate I'll be 50 before I'm actually allowed to style somebody's hair." However, it wasn't quite that long. "You'll have to do Mrs Grott today dear", said Fanny. "I've got a perm to do." "Fantastic," said Dawn, her big moment had come at last. She'd do such a great job that clients would be begging for her services. News of her talents would spread and people would come from miles around. "Do hurry up dear", said Fanny. "Mrs Grott has a bus to catch in an hour." "Erm, sorry", said Dawn coming back down to earth with a bump. She grabbed a towel and put it around Mrs Grott's wrinkled neck. "Just you wait, Mrs Grott", said Dawn, picking up the scissors. "I'm going to give you a complete makeover." "You're going to do nothing of the sort, young lady", said Mrs Grott. "I've been having my hair like this for years and I'm not about to change it now." With a sigh, Dawn put down the scissors and reached for the sponge rollers. "Very nice dear," said Mrs Grott when she had finished. "Here's a little something for you," she went on, pressing a 20p coin into her palm. Dawn stared at the coin. It didn't look as if Mrs Grott had changed the size of her tip for years, either!
However Dawn's big moment came three weeks later. "I've got to go to the dentist," said Fanny clutching her jaw. "I've been up all night with toothache. Mrs Lillicrap is coming in at nine-thirty. I tried ringing her to cancel it, but she'd already left, so you'll have to do it." She looked at Dawn doubtfully. "You do know how to do a blue rinse, don't you, dear?" "Of course I do" said Dawn. "You get your tooth seen to and don't worry about a thing. I'll fix Mrs Lillicrap." Fanny could hear the shrieks from halfway down the street on her return from the dentist. "What's wrong?" she cried out, as she hurried in, but there was no need to ask. Mrs Lillicrap's hair was blue all right: Neon blue! You could have stuck her head on top of a police car. "Look what that stupid bitch has done" she said. "But it's very fashionable," protested Dawn. "Who for?" snarled Mrs Lillicrap, "Marge Simpson?" She glared at Fanny in fury. "I'm going to sue you for every penny you've got." "No need to be hasty", soothed Fanny, "I'm sure we can sort things out." She turned her attention to Dawn. "And as for you," she said, "get through to the back and tidy the towels. I'll speak to you later." The back room was spotless by the time Fanny finished with Mrs Lillicrap. "It took twenty-one shampoos before she was fit to be seen in public," she cried, "and free hairdos for four months to stop her from suing. Sorry Dawn, but I don't think you're suitable for my salon." "She said I wasn't suitable for her salon," Dawn told Angela later. "So, you're out of a job, then?" asked Angela. "Not quite," said Dawn, "Fanny said she'd speak to a friend who might be able to use me." Fanny was true to her word. "There, what do you think?" Dawn asked a few days later. Her client's hair was bright pink, stuck up at the front and tied with a huge ribbon. "It's wonderful," said Mrs Lillicrap, pressing not a 20p coin but a five pound note into her hand. "Same time next month?" said Mrs Lillicrap. "I'm fully booked, but I'll do my best," said Dawn. "Nice work," said Margaret, Dawn's new boss. "I might have to give you a pay rise." "Great!" said Dawn. Her talents had finally paid off. She might have been a failure at Fanny's hair salon but she was definitely a hit at Ruff Cuts poodle parlour! The End
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