"Sweet Endings Part One," Or, "How Bad Haircuts Make Good Banana Bread"

Do you remember those days as a kid when you skinned your knee or hurt yourself, or made "straight A's," and you got something for it, like, say, dessert?

Let me rewind. I got a terrible haircut the other day.  I found a salon while driving to the grocery store, thinking, "this place will be great!" It was a hole-in-the-wall type that looked well established and frequented.  I walked in and the two women who were the only occupants of the shop made me wait for twenty minutes.  No one else was getting their haircut.
 
At this point, I should have seen this as a huge red flag (get out of there!).  However, the last time I randomly walked into a salon and asked for what I wanted, I was in California for a friend's wedding and they did a fabulous job.  

This was not to be one of those "happy random occurrences."  I was given short bangs I didn't ask for, which I couldn't stop until it was too late.  She gave me layers that probably weren't good for my hair type and face shape, and gave me "the Rachel" with short bangs.

Imagine THIS with bangs. HORRIFYING.

Appalled yet? I certainly was.  I won't go into much more detail as this is a blog about food and not my recklessness outside of the kitchen, but suffice to say that while they did not wash my hair at first (spritzed it wet!), when I asked for a blow-dry (I had to ask!), they responded by asking me if my hair was clean, stating, "maybe we should wash it first."  At that point, I wanted them to pay me for such a disaster.  (I am also not sure how much malice was put into those scissors.  From the moment I walked in to the moment I walked out, the lady seemed to loathe me.  Examples: twenty-minute wait in a deserted shop, not wanting to wash or blow-dry my hair, etc.)

My first instinct was to call my regular stylist and beg for forgiveness and to see if she could squeeze me in to try and salvage the mullet/rachel mess I had gotten myself into.

My second instinct was to make banana bread.  Call it a throw-back to childhood, but I just wanted to soothe it with the salve of baked goods.

My recent inspirations have been Alton Brown (I've been yearning to make these), and America's Test Kitchen. The former for all the hubbub on twitter with AB's "fanifesto" and some Houstonian calling him a "tool," and the latter because I'm mildly infatuated with ATK as I've written about before, and their banana bread recipe looks to-die-for.

That's all I have for now, as I have work tonight and a date with my stylist tomorrow afternoon.
 
Join me this weekend for "part two" in which I actually make these sweet treats, and (hopefully) have a better haircut, and outlook, on life.