A very special person I know said something interesting the other day. In fact it bordered on profound, although I don't think she intended it so, but then isn't that the nature of profound statements.... something simply said so as to seem obvious, but in reality plumbing the depths of insight.
She said, quite off handily, "I have no loyalty to hairdressers." Accustom to her pithy ways we all stopped talking and looked to her expectantly, she went on to explain. Apparently she tells all would be coiffeurs and stylists straight out that she is for all intent and purpose a hair hooker willing to ply her locks about town in search of the perfect orgasmic "do". Even if satisfied with their work she refuses to be owned by any salon, preferring to remain footloose and ever-ready to strike out on the hair highway.
Being true to complete satisfaction without developing some false sense of commercial camaraderie seems her point. Why marry yourself to one hair stylist, one product, and one outcome. Businesses of every description vie for your loyalty every day; they spend billions of dollars in advertisement and branding every year not just to sell their products and their “experience”, but to own your purchasing soul. Companies want you to buy into them; they want to create a visceral connection between what they flog and your sense of self, seducing you with their promise to the point of automation. I think my friend would argue that buying into a label, defining yourself in any way with a product is to buy into something that ultimately is not in your best interests. It seems to her, and I have to agree, remaining free to go where you want and open to other possibilities applies equally to your commercial experiences as it does to your character.
For my friend being loyal to a vendor, a brand and a product serves only to sell “you” short...
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