July 2015

I work in customer service, more specifically retail customer service. This coming November will be 10 years. So needless to say, I’ve got many things I could tell you. But today I think we will give today’s blog a theme: Being a redhead in the retail world. I’m beginning to feel like my hair attract moments like these like bees to honey.

I remember coming into work with my hair done up and a bit of make up on. I’ll be honest with you, I went to someones Christmas party with them the night before and was too tired to take my hair down. So as a result, I was a bit more fancy that day. This is a real conversation that I had with a male customer just about 8 months ago.

Customer: “You have nice hair, is it real? Do you dye it?”
Me: “Thanks, yes it is and No sir, I don’t.”
“Are you from Halifax?”
“No sir, I’m from the interior.”
“Are you from British Colombia?”
“Born and raised.”
“I’d love to have you as my girlfriend!”
“That’s great sir but I’m afraid you can’t.”
“Can I at least have your phone number?”
“No sir you can’t, here’s your bill, your change and have a great day. Next customer please. “

So reasons like that are probably why I don’t put a real effort into looking nice for work.

I had to go to another store to get some training done about 3 years ago now and it’s a day I’ll never forget. Reason: I got petted at work that day. Petted as in someone came up to me and started petting my hair. I’m used to getting the “Your hair is beautiful, is it natural? Wow I love your hair color, is it real?” These are just some of the questions I get from strangers. But until this point no stranger has actually touched my hair. This one woman came up to me with the usual “Your hair is beautiful!” Before I knew what was going, she was petting my hair like I was some lost and adorable cat. I didn’t know what to do, it was the first time anyone had actually touched my hair well I was working. I awkwardly said thanks, ducked away from her hand, and then took about 7 steps backwards told her to have a good day and told my co-worker I was going on a break.

One of my most memorable moments is probably one that happened about 7 years ago. I was just taken off the customer service desk for a break. Lucky me, I had chosen the route to the lunch room down the hair color aisle! A customer had stopped me for a couple of hair color questions. I politely told her that I didn’t know very much about hair color but I would be happy to page someone to the aisle to give her a hand. This customer proceeds to then grab a couple of boxes of red hair dye, put them next to my head and say “Bullshit, you can’t have a red like that unless it came from a box” then started arguing with me that my hair color wasn’t natural. This customer proceeded to hold more boxes to my hair and argue with me about which color it was for about 5 mins. I don’t suggest saying what I said next but it worked! I replied with “Well it came from my mother’s box and she’s not making them anymore.” Yes highly inappropriate but desperate times call for desperate measures! Then my supervisor at the time came around the corner and asked why I hadn’t gone on my break yet, I explain the situation. My supervisor then told this customer “Come back in 8 months and you will see Bailey’s hair is still the same red”. I took my cue to run away and I did. This customer would come back every few months just to check up on my hair just to see if it was still the same red as it was that day.

After nearly 10 years doing the same thing you would think it would get boring. Although with customers like these, which most of them are great, it keeps me on my toes and the job interesting! All the best, Bailey B.