Carissa Conti (@Carissa_Conti)

Part 1: Back on 11/5/20 had my hair salon appointment scheduled to get my blonde touched up. Due to COVID, being laid off, and life no longer resembling what it used to I was already teetering on the fence of no longer being blonde anymore. It literally costs thousands a year to get it done and maintained with the right products, since I go to a high end salon, getting a top of the line color/highlights job done by my favorite hairdresser of all time, a female Japanese master colorist. (will keep her name anonymous here.) While the cost wasn't even an issue back when I had my full time, fancy pants high paying job, it was now, since I'd been laid off and have a different, lower paying, part time work-from-home gig. In my deliberation process for how to proceed I resorted to my usual coin flipping and "intuiting" the situation in general. Just kept getting back heads, heads, heads, heads, and the intuitive impression that I needed to go. Interesting, I thought. Would have thought I'd get the definitive "HELL no! Tails! Tails! Tails! Save your money!" In true INFJ fashion I decided in the end to trust intuition/feeling and wackadoodle oracle methods :D versus pure "rational" intellect, then compromise financially by just getting the roots touched up, no highlights, which would save me well over 100 bucks right there. So flash forward to me later on sitting in the salon chair with the base color soaking in on my roots. It was only about 10:30 a.m. and the place was dead that day, so the stylist had time for once to actually have a casual chat while waiting for the color to set, versus rushing around to and fro. And I don't remember now the full details of how the conversation got ignited but I do see the moment in my mind where I was turned towards my right in my chair to the stylist standing diagonally next to me, and me looking up at her as she said something relating to Trump.......and to which I nodded and agreed, adding something to what she said. Which normally I wouldn't do. My normal inclination out in the world is to just stay quiet about anything I believe or think, because I've learned that almost nobody else seems to either respond, let alone agree. Plus, being submerged in "corporate job culture" for years on end trains you to just stay quiet about your real self. So revealing who I really am, what I believe, or what I write about on my website?? Hard no. But I decided to pipe up in this instance and agree, adding my own two cents......then proceeded to watch her eyes bug out in happy surprise behind the requisite mandated face mask.....and her immediate "YES!!!!!!" response. (to be continued.)