My hair has been going gray for quite some time and people have often suggested I color it. So, this week, I let a friend take me to her colorist of 15 years. We walked in and she made the introductions. The colorist stopped what she was doing, walked over to me, looked closely at my hair, and then said with finality, "Don't do it."

I was awestruck. Here I was, in a salon so famous for its hair coloring that there's a bestselling book about it and she turned me away. She was very nice, very polite, and succinctly explained exactly why hair coloring would not go well for me. Since I'd read up on hair coloring the night before, I understood exactly the chemical problem she was describing and it made sense.

Since it's the week after Thanksgiving, when all the great Christmas movies are on tv, it reminded me of the great scenes in Miracle on 34th Street when the stores start sending people to their competitors when it will give the customers what they want. Here, too, the colorist and salon passed on a large sale and a big tip in order to do the right thing. That's great customer service!