Jimmy's - Hair with Heart

Highland Avenue, Malden, MA

'Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.' Eric Hoffer

There are many ways to describe a person. Most of us can immediately conjure up the same rather crude descriptive terms for those we don't particularly like, those who have done us wrong, or those who are just plain nasty. And, then there are the sweet ones in this world...The peach, the doll, the 'lovey'; the person behind the name of James Michael Coiffures. Jimmy - as he is endearingly called by his clientele - is a Hairdresser Extraordinaire, attending to his ladies like a King holding Court. They come to be primped and pouffed. They come for chit and chat. But what is really behind the weekly wash-and-style is caring. The ultimate in pride for ones work.

"It's our little secret...We won't tell a soul...Just for you...Special...Happy to do it...I would have moved a mountain...Pleased to meet you.." And on and on....You sit there and you smile. You have a piece of candy and you listen to the banter - and you smile. You feel good being there; the kindness really is contagious. It is a hairspray-with-humanity genuine show of compassion to these elders; making them feel special, all neat and trimmed and in the spotlight for a little while. They come back, they tell their friends and they come, too, because it really is more about the heart than the hair at Jimmy's. You won't find ultra-chic decor, or the latest new age music playing. It is comfort from 30 years ago. A blast from the past and, well, HAIR :

A home for the fleas, a home for the buzzin' bees. A nest for the birds - there ain't no words - For the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of my hair......

(A bottom of the heart thank you to Evie, for introducing me to Jimmy and providing this good fun for a day...lunch of homemade pasta at Prisco's - SO DELICIOUS - and, memories for a lifetime.)