Donnie and Me - I'd Trust Him With My Life!

There are always people out there that you trust - family or close friends....I have a handful that I would trust with my secrets and shenanigans...fyi, parents are not two of them.

One person that I trust is Donnie...Donnie is my hairdresser. Maybe trusting him with my life is a bit of an exaggeration - but he is the only person I will trust with one of my best qualities - my hair. He lives in New York City and works out of a salon in Chinatown. He has been cutting my hair for about 20 years. Before going to Donnie, I would only let women cut my hair....I was never comfortable with a man cutting my hair; probably the same way I feel about going to a man ob-gyn. I obviously broke out of my 'comfort zone' when it came to my hair (not with the ob-preference).

Even though I now live in Virginia and have been living here for the past six years, I will still only go to Donnie. That's a bond that I'm just not willing to break. My friends and co-workers have gotten use to the fact that Donnie is the only one allowed to take a pair of scissors to my hair. When my co-workers hear that I'm taking a day off (usually Friday) to go up to NY/NJ, they'll say, 'Haircut?' And I'll say, 'Yes.'

I will admit that I was scared of Donnie when he first started cutting my hair. In my pre-teens, I wasn't exactly 'in the know' about the stereotypes of male hairdressers...oddly enough, I think I totally knew about the stereotypes of male airline stewards. Anyway, Donnie was definitely nice - and he probably liked my hair because it was thick, shiny and 'young.' I pretty much gave him free reign to do what he wanted to do...he knew. He knew what needed to be done. As the years went on, all I needed to do was show up, say 'Help!' and he would get busy cutting my hair into something that I would be happy with. Admittedly, there are probably less than five times (in a span of 20 years, remember) in which I was not happy with what Donnie did....the last time I was upset with his cut, which was less than three years ago, I thought I had a fe-mullet - in 2006! But in about a month, it grew out into something that I totally loved. So even though I didn't LOVE what he did at the salon, he had the foresight to know what it would turn out like - and I also knew that I could go to him and say, 'Let's not go that short again - just trim this.'

Most people get their haircut once every 1-2 months. I am more of a 3-4 times a year...that works for me because it gives me a chance to visit my family and load up on my Chinatown routine (Joe's Shanghai, bubble tea, lychee sorbet, ready-made Chinese food). When I'm in the salon with Donnie, we talk about music - the good old stuff like Depeche Mode, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys - summer plans, vacations, celebrities and we sing to Madonna and Donna Summer. When Madonna's 'Confessions on a Dance Floor' came out, he would cut the Hot 97 playing over the salon speakers and throw on some Madonna and we would jam through my cut-duration.

I've learned the following things about Donnie - he's originally from Malaysia, he trained at a Vidal Sassoon salon, him and a friend used to do Michelle Yeoh's hair for shows (back in his Malaysian days), he thinks the hair-wash girls are catty, and the number-one thing I learned in my years with Donnie - DO NOT piss him off.



There was this one incident where I had an appointment with him -I can't remember if he was running behind or what but I had been waiting for over an hour after my appointment time to get my haircut- and my sister and nephew were with me. My sister was getting antsy about going home (since we had a child with us) so we basically had to have another person cut our hair in the salon. This did not make Donnie happy - and he let me know it. I felt horrible for months! I sent him cookies....apology notes...I tried to make amends by bringing him holiday treats and giving better tips. I believe he eventually forgave me but I will never forget that time. I felt wretched. I would not let my sister get her haircut with me again - she moonlighted at other salons....I think she has slowly made her way back into Donnie's good graces because she's getting her haircut with him this Saturday....lucky for her. But I will never, ever, ever let anyone else touch my hair.

I always said that if I became famous and/or went on tour for something, Donnie would be my main hair dresser - he would be my Ken Paves!