“A shampooist in an uptown hair salon warns a matron not to lean too far back on the sink. The salon is being renovated and the sink needs adjustment.

The shampooist is new. This time last year, she wasn’t a shampooist. She was a chemist in a country now erased by war.

‘This is an adventure,’ the matron observes, gingerly tilting her head back until it rests on the porcelain.

‘Yes, an adventure,’ the shampooist says, reaching for a towel to cushion her neck.”

– Helen Klein Ross, Making It