A Mother-in-law's Gift!

The woman pulled her companion through the tall glass door into the complex with a flashy sign outside it that read Bombshell Studio. Both their eyes open wide - the woman’s in excitement and her companion’s in bewilderment and shock.

Dozens of questions whizzed through her companion’s mind; how will my husband and the kids react? What will our neighbours think? What will my parents say?! But the woman wasn’t taking NO for an answer. She was determined to get her companion to transform her hair.

The woman had purple hair with a pixie cut. Her Led Zeppelin T-shirt, paired with navy blue denim, made her look younger than she actually was. Her companion was the exact opposite - long black hair that fell to her shoulders like a curtain sweeping the floor and adorned in a simple blush pink chikankari kurta and white pants.

The woman scanned the space for her favourite stylist and on spotting him took her companion to him. She explained to him what she wanted and he immediately turned on his feet and set to work. He led her to the shampoo chair where he washed and conditioned her hair with utmost dexterity. Then, he led her to one of the empty chairs in front of the wall-length mirrors and asked her how she wanted her hair to be. Before she could open her mouth, the woman directed the stylist to give her a bob haircut.

The stylist set to his task like clockwork with his deft hands. Once he put down the scissors, the woman’s companion finally thought that the ordeal was over, but little did she know what to follow. After five minutes, he reappeared with a brush, an apron, and a pack of bright scarlet red hair colour. Her eyes darted toward the woman’s reflection in the mirror which smiled back at her and assured her that she wouldn’t regret it.

As the stylist dropped the hairdryer and moved aside, the woman’s companion stared, flabbergasted, at the reflection staring back at her from the mirror. In less than two hours, he had transformed her hair from something unrecognizable in a crowd to tresses that would make heads turn at least once.

The woman beamed at her companion who, after coming back to her senses, admitted to loving what the stylist had done with her hair. They happily marched to the billing counter giggling all the way. As they approached it, the lady standing behind asked the woman’s companion the mode of payment she preferred. To this, the woman immediately said, “it’s my daughter-in-law’s birthday today and this is my gift to her”.

The lady behind the counter first looked at her with eyes open wide. The very next moment, her face split into a wide, warm grin, looked at the daughter-in-law, and told her that she was the luckiest woman in the world, to which she replied, “I know. I am”, and gave her mother-in-law a peck on her cheek.