65. Blondes Have More Fun

        By the time Mel re-appeared through the beaded curtain, apologetic for the delay, Zara had finished her second goblet of wine and was feeling a little tipsy, which had taken the edge off the pain. 

         "Oh dear, Hedena doesn't stop talking!" Mel was apparently aware of the time lapse, vindicating Zara's feelings of neglect. "I'm so sorry to keep you waiting Sugar Cheeks, you know how particular she is!" Mel lifted the towel and checked Zara's hair. "Hmmmm… It looks good! Come with me and we'll rinse it out."
         Relieved the ordeal was finally over, Zara followed Mel to the sink in the back of the salon and sat down in the chair.

         "Just lean back and relax" Mel cooed, guiding her head into the sink as she leaned back.

         Zara closed her eyes as Mel turned on the faucet, she took a deep breath as wafts of aromatherapy infused waters reached her senses. The feeling of the warm water washing the dye out of her stinging scalp was so relieving, the massage was so soothing, sensations soon replaced the pain with feelings of relief, easing her troubled mind.

         Once her hair was rinsed, Mel wrapped a towel around her head and led her back to the chair. But as Mel unwrapped the towel from her head, Zara gasped! Half her hair had fallen out!!!

         "Oh. My. God." Mel began to fan her face in panic, shocked by the results.
         Instantly, Zara fell apart, bursting into tears from the horrific reflection before her.
         "Now don’t you cry!" Mel scolded. "You're lucky you're with a professional. I'll be able to fix it for you, you just had a bad reaction to the dye, that's all!"

         "Whyyyyyy" Zara wailed, breaking.

         "It's probably your Serpent genetics!"

         Reminded of her fatal flaw, Zara stiffened, instantly. She took a deep breath and wiped the tears away, reminding herself of the cold hard truth as Hedena had taught her to do: Mel was a trained professional, the number one stylist in the empire, she promised she could fix it. Anger moved in to replace the tears. Why had no one warned her? Dena never once mentioned this. "Does this happen to other Serpent Gens?"

         "Not often. It depends on the quality of the gene, or lack of" Mel replied.

         It only confirmed Zara’s feelings of inadequacy, discouraging her to consult Mel's professional opinion any more.

         Mel took the comb and began to comb out what was left of her hair, but the hair continued to fall out with the comb.
         Zara kept falling apart accordingly, like an emotional yo-yo now she could barely remain composed as she watched the last of her frizzy hair fall to the floor.

         Irritated by her emotional breakdown, Mel gave up and put the comb down. "Look, there's nothing I can do to save your hair. I'm sorry. This has never happened like this before. The good thing is, you know it will grow back soon enough. I'm recommending we shave the rest of your hair off, that way it will grow back evenly."

         Mel wasn't comforting Zara at all.
         "Now stop that!" She scolded. "That sniveling is NOT going to help." She paused for a moment, recalling her past experience dealing with malfunctioning Golden's and changed her tone. "This is exactly why we have wigs, not everyone is blessed with good hair. Would you like to try one?" She offered. "I have lots of clients who shave their hair and wear a wig instead. No one will know and you may even like it more than your own frizzy hair!"
         "A wig?"
         "Sure! Why don't you let me show you some of our fine wigs?" She handed Zara a box of silk napkins.

         Zara chuckled, the wig idea made her laugh, she had never even dreamed of wearing a wig before. "Okay..." she took the box of napkins.

         "Don't worry, Sugar Cheeks, life has a funny way of pulling these little tricks on us, sometimes these things turn out for the best!"

         Filled with enthusiasm, Mel placed her tools on the cart to fetch a wig. "Let's see what you look like as a blonde goddess! We have some beautiful blonde wigs for sale!"

         A blonde goddess? Zara stared at herself in the mirror as she hurried into the back room, trying to imagine such a thing. Moments later, Mel returned with a beautiful, curly blonde wig.

         "This is the Athenian Goddess model. The salon will give it to you for free to compensate for the hair loss, so don't worry about the price tag." She placed it carefully over Zara's head and laid the cascading curls neatly over her shoulders.

         "See?"
         Zara couldn't believe the transformation, crying-laughing now she broke out into a huge smile.
         "There. You're a blonde goddess now!"

         "Wow..." Zara touched her new blonde curls, they felt so... flaxen. "Mighty Medel...Thank you sooooo much!" It was amazing! Mel was right, the wig looked so great, she really did look like a blonde goddess!

         "My that looks on you!" Mel stepped back to admire her handy work. The transformation was sensational! "Mighty Medel.. You do look good as a blonde! Look how it makes your eyes pop, it even makes you look pretty!"

         Zara felt stoned in amazement. "Wow…"

         "See? I told you, life plays these tricks on us. If we hadn't had that little accident, you would never have discovered how great you look as a blonde! Blondes have much more fun, you're going to love it! I guarantee!"

         Nolan walked down Main St towards Headquarters, feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities he had no power to control. He couldn't return to the office, not now, now he really needed another drink. Two boat loads of gravel? How would he hide that cost?

         Stressed like he had never been stressed before, Nolan couldn't resist the Skin Club as the signage caught his eye. The small and dingy hang-out was almost empty, as it usually was this early in the day, his timing was excellent.

         But he wasn't the only thirsty god seeking refuge from the chaos unfolding, Torus god of the Underworld himself had spotted Nolan dart into the Skin Club from up the street. He followed him inside. He found the young recruit tucked in the shadows at the back of the club, he could sense his stress, it was so thick it was polluting the air. 

         "I hear Aquilla's compromising the construction site" he sympathized, helping himself to the seat across the table, understanding of Nolan's position in the unfortunate drama.
         Although he knew whining was poor form, Nolan couldn't resist being heard. "I don't know what to do about it" he lamented. "I'm blowing the budget on the gravel orders, blowing it on extra labour costs and somehow, at the same time, I'm supposed to pull a complete Moha Lab Renovation out my ass, and Atalon refuses to increase my budget!"

         Torus listened, he could see the trouble Nolan was in.