A Lesson in Haircare

Writers: Kaysea, Rochelle
Date Posted: 24th August 2007

Characters: Treya, Ariau
Description: Treya gives Ariau more of a welcome to the Weyr than she bargained for.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 5, day 20 of Turn 4

"Barnabie you need to sit still." Treya laughed, taking another handful of his hair in her hand and slowly chopping into it with the scissors she held. "Don't twist so, you'll make me slip again!" she was having a hard time controlling her laughter.

Ariau was passing by when she heard the laughter, and paused. Curious, she looked inside the room, then pulled back quickly when she thought she had been spotted.

"Hello?" Treya tried hard to stifle her laughter, when she called out, but the words seemed a little garbled even to herself. "Someone there?"

"I thought I saw a head there." Barnabie said as he too managed to bring himself under control. "You can come in!" he called out.

"Sit still." Treya commanded, whilst walking towards the door. "Hello?" she smiled in greeting at the younger girl standing outside. "You want a hair cut as well?" she asked, giving the scissors a quick one-two snip.

Self-consciously smoothing her hair, and grimacing when she realized it had frizzed itself into a tangle again, Ariau shook her head. "No thanks. The last time I tried cutting this mess it discovered it could stand up on it's own."

"I've seen that happened before," Treya nodded, "but I can straighten it for you!" her eyes widened in excitement, "I had the smiths design me a straightener and I've been dying to find someone else to use it on." She reached out and dragged the younger girl into the weyr.

Ariau yelped, trying to pull her arm free as she was dragged into the weyr. "Thanks, but I'm not really interested." She said hastily. "I just got a haircut recently, and it seems to be working out okay."

"Oh." Treya's smile faltered, "Sorry, I guess I just got carried away there a little." She gave a shrug, "I'm quite good with hair though, if you're ever interested?" She walked back over and picked up the scissors she had been using on Barnabie, "Stay still," she ordered, "not much more to go."

She began snipping again, at various lengths of his hair, but paused for a moment, "Oh Barnabie, this is..." she began, but appeared lost for words as she looked at the girl in askance, "You're new here at the Weyr, aren't you?" she asked, "I'm Treya, this is Barnabie, and you are?"

"I'm Ariau, a candidate. I just transferred from Fort Weyr. It's all right. You just caught me by surprise, but I really did just have my hair cut recently." She told Treya sincerely. "My aunt insisted I get one before I left." She shrugged.

"Well, just so you know, I do have some straightening irons, so if you ever want to have nice sleek hair for the day or evening, let me know." Treya said as she bent down to check how straight Barnabie's hair was from the back.

"I'll keep that in mind." Ariau promised. Who knew? it might be interesting to try some evening - not for anything special though! She didn't trust her hair to behave with temptation like that! Self-consciously, she smoothed it with her fingers again, and paused when she encountered the large tangle again. "But, um... do you mind if I borrow your hairbrush for a moment?"

"No, I don't mind." Treya replied, glancing over her shoulder, "it's over there." she indicated with a nod of her head. Her fingers pulled at Barnabie's fringe, "See?" she said, "I told you not to move, now your fringe is crooked." her voice showed exasperation.

"Well, you made me." Barnabie countered, "you almost took my eye out the last time you came near me with them, what'd you expect me to do? Sit still!"

"Actually - yes, that would have been wise." Treya shook her head, her fingers pulling his hair straight again, before trimming again. "Let's get another opinion. What do you think Ariau? Is it straight enough now?"

Ariau paused in her cautious brushing - she didn't want to break Treya's brush, after all- and smiled at the pair. "It looks straight to me."

"Okay, that's settled then, you're free to go." she said, pulling the cloth from around Barnabie's neck and shaking his hair off, onto the floor. "But -remember, you clean up your own hair." she shook a finger at him in warning. "Brush and pan are over there." she nodded her head to the corner of the room.

Turning, she took in Ariau's struggle with her recalcitrant mop of hair, "Want some help?" she asked, folding the sheet as she walked across the room.

"I'm fine." Ariau said hastily, attempting to remove the brush from her hair - and suffering a moment of panic when she realized that it had become part of the tangle she'd been trying to dislodge. "It's just really, um, tangled is all..."

"Let me help." Treya said, stifling a laugh. "Your hair really is a mess right now, isn't it?" she moved closer, and gently began extricating the hair that was wrapped tightly around the hairbrush. "You need to use some oils in your hair, just for a sevenday or so. It's really very dry, you know. And dry hair does tend to tangle and break more easily."

"It always does this." Ariau said with exasperation, trying to pry a few of the thicker strands of hair from the brush attached to her head. "It doesn't matter what I do. It just gets really frizzy, especially if it's humid, and the next thing I know I'm trying to find a new hairbrush in the storerooms and looking like a feline died on my head."

"Well I still think a little oil would help." Treya smiled, once more untwisting some hair from around the stock of the hairbrush. "The oil would help during the humidity too. Even a little on your hairbrush, enough to tame some of your hair, and it'd give it a lovely sheen, just like on the dragons." Treya smiled widely, "I'm serious!" she said, seeing the look of disbelief on Ariau's face.

"But _oil_?" Ariau said skeptically. "I want to be a _rider_, not a _dragon_!"

"You can find some really nice oils, fragrant ones. I have some around here somewhere..." her words faded as she turned and started rummaging around in the cupboard behind her. "I got some from the traders last time they visited the Weyr."

"I don't know." Ariau said doubtfully. "Won't oil make it slimy? And harder to wash out?"

"No. You don't use enough to make it slimy, or hard to remove. Just enough to condition your hair and leave it silky smooth." Treya rummaged further into the cupboard, "Aha! Here it is." she came out as though holding a prize in her hands, "This one has a redfruit scent added, its beautiful, here - smell!" she held out the jar, lid off and contents moving silkily in the container.

Ariau sniffed carefully, and nodded in appreciation. "It does smell nice." She admitted. "But are you sure? The last time I tried to put something in my hair that wasn't water or sweetsand I had to cut the knots out. My hair has been known to eat small objects." She said with a grimace.

Treya laughed, "You do have a descriptive way with words." She tipped the jar a little and dipped a finger in, watching the oil coat her finger. "Here, hold out your hand and feel the texture."

"You think I'm kidding." Ariau muttered, putting the freshly untangled hairbrush on the table and obligingly sticking a finger in the oil. It felt almost like water, but a little thicker, softer almost. "It does feel nice." She said, eyeing the jar in consideration. "How much would you need to use? Half the jar?"

"Shards no!" Treya rocked back in surprise. "Look, watch me." She put the jar down on the dressing table in front of them, and dipped two fingers into the mixture. Her fingers were well coated as she quickly wiped them into the palm of her other hand, then rubbed her hands together. "See, plenty there to use. Now watch." She proceeded to comb her hands through her blonde locks, fingers splayed and appearing like horns through the curls. "Now you do it." she directed Ariau.

It seemed easy enough, so Ariau put two fingers in the oil, wondering at the feeling of them being enveloped, and then pulled them out, rubbing her hands. It coated nicely, but when she tried to run her fingers through her hair, they didn't go very far. "Um, the tangle is still there..."

"Okay, twiddle your fingers through the tangle, in small amounts. Just enough for the oil to calm down each single hair." Treya suggested. She knew this would help the younger girl, but first they had to get her hair coated enough for the oil to do its work.

Ariau tried following the directions, and managed to work her way through part of the tangle before finding the solid knot at the core. "I think I need the hairbrush again." She admitted. "It isn't going to give up without a fight."

"Let me do it." Treya offered, "Sit down in my chair, and I can work from above." she pulled the chair over to the dresser, and patted the back of it.

Cautiously, still trying to work her fingers through the massive ball of frizz her hair had turned into over the last few days, Ariau followed Treya's orders.

The younger woman was right, her hair was tied up in the smallest tangles, all over. "You really manage to untangle this nest without the use of scissors?" she asked, exasperatedly, after a quarter candlemark of making no headway through the mess.

"Usually." Ariau admitted, feeling vindicated by the feeling in Treya's voice. "But it isn't easy, and I tend to snap a lot of hairbrushes. If I know I'm going to be outside or no one's going to see me, I usually don't bother. It's been a little worse than normal recently though," she admitted, trying to encourage the greenrider. "I didn't realize that River Bluff would be so humid when I decided to transfer here."

"Hmm. Breaking hairbrushes and losing handfuls of hair, no doubt, in the process?" she asked, her head bent closer to Ariau's head, as she tried to ease the hair loose.

"Always." She admitted with a sigh.

"Okay, now I don't want you to panic..." Treya said, "but the breaking hair is going to make the frizz worse. These small knots can be snipped at, and then you don't lose a handful at once... okay?"

"But when you do that, there are whole chunks that are shorter than the rest and the result is the same!" Ariau said in alarm.

"Noooo!" Treya shook her head and her blonde curls bounced around like a halo, a contrast to her personality, "No! Not great chunks," she replied, "just little snippets. Actually, you have some split ends in here, which are probably the damage you've down twisting your hair brush through this mop." she smiled, "But once I snip just a few short ends off, you may find it easier to pull a brush through - with the help of the oil."

"You can't get a brush through it with the oil now." Ariau reminded her.

Teya sighed, "That's because it's too tangled. We get it straightened out, apply a little oil each day after your ablutions, and it may actually appear tamed, then." she smiled, 'oiling after ablutions' Ariau would begin to think she was changing into a dragon. "But you need all of these knots out first." she said, determinedly.

Ariau grinned at Treya. "Well, I've got a few candlemarks to spare. How about you?"

"Let's get really started then."

Last updated on the November 22nd 2008

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A Lesson in Haircare