A Full Service Prom Salon

It was Thursday night, and prom was two days away. A couple of the high school girls came over for a visit. One of them hadn’t been asked to prom. When you live in a small town with a 3 to 1 girl to boy ratio, it becomes a rat race. And the prettiest girls aren’t always the winners. This beautiful, confident, young lady knew the odds. They were the same as last year and she was prepared to do make up and help them get ready for their dates just as she had the year before. But this was new to me. You mean to say that she wasn’t going to stay home, eating ice cream and watching sad movies? She didn’t ask some unsuspecting cousin, or take her brother? She didn’t get a bunch of dateless girls together for an anti-prom? All of which are perfectly acceptable alternatives to being asked. (I use to prefer the ice cream and sad movie.) Instead she broke out her Urban Decay, got her beautician on and served her friends? The first thing I thought, after it all sunk in was, “This girl needs a party!” This is a new kind of independence. It is a new alternative for young women everywhere who didn’t get asked to prom. It was liberating, and I HAD to be a part of it.
So here is what we did. We made our basement into a salon. We had a reception desk, magazines, all kinds of hair gadgets, manicure supplies, bottles of Voss and hairspray. (Which kind of look the same but taste drastically different.) We even made party favors with bouquets around lip gloss, mints and nail files. We watched videos of how to do different updos on You Tube so we were prepared when everyone came.  The dateless girls pampered those with dates, did their nails, hair and makeup, got them magazines and offered them water.  I’ve never had so much fun not going to prom! Of course you know, I’m 40 and that ship sailed a long time ago. We worked fast and it was really scary at some points, we were worried that we weren’t going to make it in time. But I figured as much, I mean beauty takes time and we wanted to take as much as we needed. So we had a reception area for the girl’s dates. There, we had music, a seating area, mocktails and “5 Gum” as party favors. By the end of the night both the girls and their dates felt spoiled. And as for the dateless girls, after everyone left looking absolutely stunning, the dateless girls sat down for a minute and sighed. Then, they got their own gowns and their groove on and went to the dance by themselves. They had made up a dance to “Born this Way.” When the song came on the dateless girls did their routine and ended an amazing night with a bang. Then, they came home and we ate leftover cupcakes and drank mocktails and talked about how beautiful it all was. I was so proud of these girls. The theme that night was “Happily Ever After”. These girls were their own heroes. They took back the night and made it their own by serving their sisters and they showed us all, sometimes you have to fight for your Happily Ever After.