I was the President of a newly formed association that was to benefit the Underground Utilities Industry in the State of Texas. We were associated with the Nation Utility Contractors Association that was commonly known as the as NUCA.

When we formed our state chapter in 1985, we adopted the clever acronym TUCA. With Austin being the hub of all things political in Texas we located our office there. I had some vacant office space in my building which was up on a rise overlooking downtown Austin. Back in those days the Capitol Building wasn’t obscured by all the tall buildings, so from our front door the Capitol was in view.

We assembled some of the brightest minds in the industry to lead this new organization. Now you can see why I became President in short order. Maybe it was because I was letting them have office space for free. All kidding aside, we had a very good group of people involved from around the state.

One of the first things we decided was that we need to travel around to different exciting places to hold our board meetings. It made it all kind of worthwhile.

One memorable trip was to Mt. Washington, NH. It was in the fall of the year so we got to see the beautiful leaves changing colors and went to the top of Mt. Washington on the cog railroad.

My wife always carried her camera back then and took a lot of pictures of all the sights and our friends that were our travel companions.

We got back home a she got the film developed. As we perused the photos, there was one particular photo with several people on our travel party. But I couldn’t identify this one fellow, with the back of his head shining. I asked “who’s that guy sitting there talking to Dave?” That’s when she dropped the bomb that it was me with the big bald spot.

I was yet to even hit my mid thirties. How could it be? We’ve laughed throughout the years about that discovery. I kind of got the last laugh. That bald spot never grew in size after that. In fact I hardly even think about it.

I went in for a haircut yesterday. A very nice older lady (old for Sports Clips), Vietnamese was the one I ended up with. She immediately took interest in my bald spot. She say “I can tell you washing and rinsing hair with hot water. That’s why it falling out”.

“Is that right, you use hot water on you hair?”

I admitted that yes, I take hot (very hot) showers and I do rinse my hair with hot water.

“See I told you. I know about hair.”

I wasn’t going to argue the point so I nodded my head affirming that I was guilty. She say, “you hold your head still so I don’t mess up your haircut”.

I could tell she was taking control of this situation. I set there looking straight ahead, trying to not be scolded again.

Then she said “you using too much shampoo on your hair. You shouldn’t use very much shampoo.”

I admitted that I do use a lot of shampoo. I may even give it a double pump, but I didn’t reveal that.

She spun me around in that chair and handed me a mirror so I could see the back. I didn’t really even look. I said “you are the professional, I’ll take your word for it”.

Now it was time to go to the back and a get a shampoo. She say “I am using this bery special shampoo and it only take a little bit”. She stuck her hand around to show me that she was only using a dab of shampoo about the size of a garden pea. It lathered up, surprisingly well, for such a small amount of shampoo.

She massaged and massaged telling me “Do it like this. It make hair grown back”. Then she gave it a good healthy cold rinse. “You see I don’t put hot water on your hair. You should always only use hot water from your shoulders down”. I said “okay I got it, no hot water on my head, just the shoulders down”.

She said “now you got it”.

We returned to the chair, where she apply some very nice smelling leave-in conditioner, combed my hair and invited me up to the cash register.

Not two minutes later I was walking out the door with a sack full of hair products. And my wallet $173.24 lighter.

The last thing I remember her saying was “I know the bottles are bery small, but it will last for one year, because you jist use little bit.”

That whole experience left me feeling like I did one time on a cruise ship when I went to a spa and left there with a sack full of beauty products. I think that experience cost more than this trip to Sports Clips.

Madeline, if you happen to read this, I promise to behave myself for the rest of the time you are away on your cruise vacation. I love ❤️ you.