{"id":415609,"date":"2026-10-01T11:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/415609\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T11:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:04:09","slug":"the-return-of-the-reluctant-hairdresser-mr-charles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/415609\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return of the Reluctant Hairdresser Mr. Charles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

There comes a moment in every man\u2019s life when he must face a profound question: How did I get here? Mine first arrived about 10 years ago when Carol had rotator cuff surgery. And now following a series of health surprises aka Carol\u2019s weird maladies (and that\u2019s straight from the doctors\u2019 mouths) Mister Charles is at it again.<\/p>\n

For me, that moment usually occurs while standing in the bathroom holding a blow dryer.<\/p>\n

Yes, a blow dryer. Because, trust me, what the hair stylist does never quite translates to Carol\u2019s styling abilities. In short, when it comes to blow drying hair, her \u201clopsided\u201d vision leaves her defeated every time.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, I was simply a husband. But sporadic caregiving has a remarkable way of expanding one\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Suddenly, I am a part caregiver, part driver, part beauty consultant, and\u2014much to my surprise\u2014part hairdresser.<\/p>\n

It begins innocently enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you dry my hair?\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, I say.<\/p>\n

Five minutes later, I\u2019m holding the blow dryer like a power tool, wondering why it has three heat settings and what, exactly, \u201ccool shot\u201d means. I move it from one side of her head to the other, trying to remember whether I\u2019m supposed to point it at the roots, the ends, or simply wave it around until something happens.<\/p>\n

Then comes the brush.<\/p>\n

This is where things become complicated.<\/p>\n

Apparently, hair has opinions.<\/p>\n

It curls when it is supposed to straighten, flattens when it is supposed to have volume, and develops a mysterious personality of its own. Mr. Charles has learned that Carol\u2019s hair can require more strategy than assembling furniture without instructions.<\/p>\n

There is also the matter of temperature.<\/p>\n

Too hot: \u201cThat\u2019s burning!\u201d<\/p>\n

Too cool: \u201cAre you drying it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Too much air: \u201cYou\u2019re blowing my hair everywhere!\u201d<\/p>\n

Too little air: \u201cAre you even using the dryer?\u201d<\/p>\n

At some point, I begin to suspect that this is less a caregiving task and more an examination for which I was never given the study guide.<\/p>\n

And yet, I persist.<\/p>\n

I dry. I brush. I fluff. I occasionally stand back and admire my work only to hear, \u201cYou missed a spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, there is always a spot.<\/p>\n

The transformation is complete when I start offering unsolicited advice: \u201cI think we need to lift this side a little.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that point, everyone knows the truth.<\/p>\n

Publisher Charles has become Mr. Charles \u2013 the hairdresser.<\/p>\n

Not by training. Not by choice. But by love, necessity, and an increasingly intimate relationship with a blow dryer.<\/p>\n

And frankly, I\u2019m getting rather good at it.<\/p>\n

As of this publication, we\u2019ve been married an incredible 55 years \u2013 so I\u2019ve had lots of experience on the job!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There comes a moment in every man\u2019s life when he must face a profound question: How did I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-415609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}