After days buried in deadlines and exhaustion, I boarded that plane with one goal—to finally switch off my mind and sink into a movie. The hum of the engines felt like a lullaby, the dim cabin lights a promise of peace. I exhaled, ready to rest. Then, like a curtain dropping between me and my escape, a thick wave of hair fell over my screen. The girl in front of me, barely out of her teens, had tossed her long locks right across my tray table. I tapped her shoulder, gentle but firm, and she turned, smiled vaguely, and pulled it back. I thought that was the end of it.
Ten minutes later, her hair was back—draped across my space as if it belonged there. I asked again, this time louder. She ignored me, eyes glued to her phone. Something in me shifted. I wasn’t angry yet—just done being disregarded. So, I reached into my bag, took out three sticks of gum, and began to chew, slow and deliberate. When it was soft enough, I leaned forward and pressed the gum carefully into the silky curtain of hair. One piece. Then another. Then the last. She didn’t notice at first, and I sat back, calm, watching my movie as if nothing had happened.
Fifteen minutes later, she did. Her shriek sliced through the cabin air. “What is this?!” she cried, clawing at the sticky mess. I didn’t even look away from the screen. “That,” I said quietly, “is what happens when you ignore basic respect.” She glared, furious and mortified. I leaned forward, voice steady. “You can either spend the rest of the flight like that or let me help. I have scissors.” Her face went pale. The arrogance drained out of her like air from a punctured tire. She twisted her hair into a tight bun, sat stiff as a statue, and didn’t move again.
For the first time that day, I relaxed fully into my seat. The movie flickered across my screen, undisturbed. The cabin hummed softly, peaceful once more. Some lessons in manners come gently; others come the hard way, thirty thousand feet in the air. I don’t know if she learned hers for good—but I do know she never let that hair fall back over my tray again.
