I was standing in one of the checkout queues at Woolworths in Kianawa Shopping Plaza (my favourite shopping plaza) early this morning when I overheard a peculiar conversation over at the next checkout.

“I really like your hair!” a man’s voice boomed.

“Thank you,” said the lady serving at the till, “I had it all cut off on the weekend.”

“I HATE long hair!” the booming voice shook the shop floor and reverberated in the eardrums of shoppers and shop assistants alike.

I looked at the lady serving at my checkout; she had long red hair in a ponytail, which was much more feminine than the cropped head at the next till. I envisaged my own long hair and I wondered what kind of man would dare to proclaim to the world about him his hatred of long hair. The assistant and I both glanced in the direction of the man.

He was a big middle-aged man wearing a t-shirt, shorts and a wide-brimmed hat. He had an enormous pot-belly and a stupid-looking face.

The man in front of me on my queue smiled a Mona Lisa smile to himself and left with his shopping. My provisions moved along the shopping travelator and I responded to the “G’dday” of the lady with the long red ponytail:

“Aren’t you glad that you have long hair?”

She smiled knowingly and acquiesced. The woman with the short hair overheard me and turned around to explain whilst still serving the man with the hat, the stupid face and pot belly.

“I always used to have long hair and only had it cut because it was my birthday – the big five o”, she couldn’t bear to say it properly (and I commiserated with her).

The man with the booming voice and poor taste in haircuts reached the end of his checkout to gather up his bags of shopping. He looked at we three women chatting and he made another announcement.

“My friend died of cancer yesterday,” he bellowed.

“Did she have long hair?” asked the smart fifty-year-old with the jaunty short hair, and her laughing eyes darted over to the redhead and me.

“I was about to ask the same question,” I remarked.

We womenfolk laughed and the man looked astonished.