Hey Becc, thank you for your neutrality with my haircut.

Hey Bec,

I forgot to tell you how much I appreciated your response to my new haircut! I am a big fan of surprises, especially when they involve presents or extra corn-syrup fortified treats, but there’s other kinds of surprises too that are surprising in how neutral they are, and I wanted to thank you for your neutral words of surprise when I walked in the door and you looked at my haircut and said in monotone, which was impressive -

“Did someone new cut your hair?”

That was so surprising, because I had no idea that was the first thing you’d say, and I still have no idea how you were so spot on! To re-confirm your surprising suspicions, yes, it was a totally different person who gave me what she cheerfully referred to as “a low maintenance haircut.” The fact that you noticed it was someone different who cut my hair from the last time I got it cut last year really said something to me.

What it said to me was this: “I like this man. I like this man enough to look at him when he walks in the door and give him a neutral and surprising comment about his haircut.”

I know you don’t just say that to anyone. That truly is the ingredient you use to keep things fresh: Surprise. And then the second part of your surprise when you muttered in a neutral-slash-complimentary tone after you had silently inspected my head for seventy more seconds:

“I think it may turn out okay.”

This was ALSO surprising because I did not expect you to say those exact words! It was a surprise! And the fact that you were able to predict, without knowing, that my new haircut would eventually look okay was actually very thoughtful and unnecessarily kind, because the truth is, we DON’T know! We really don’t know if it will turn out okay, yet you were willing to bravely say those words out loud, in solidarity with me and my new hair.

Thank you for being willing to continue stepping out into the crazy unknown with me. It will be such a surprise to see what my hair looks like in the morning! Ideally it will be fine. But we don’t know. It will be a surprise.

Hypothetically, would it be surprising to you if someone cut your hair while you were sleeping tonight? Like, a good neutral surprise we could chuckle about someday? Someday soon? Anyway, thanks again for the interesting surprise feedback regarding my hair. Chat soon. Oh, BTW are we out of floss? Text me.

J.

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