"Hair Today Gone Tomorrow" is an episode of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty adventures.
Summary[]
Lemon Meringue worries about her place in the community after her new machine makes her salon more efficient and herself less essential.
Episode Review[]
As the other girls are chatting and getting their hair done at Lemon Salon, Strawberry shows up for her appointment, thinking she's early only to discover that she is on time. Lemon is running behind schedule and wishes though there is a way to do hair and nails faster. The other girls assure her she's doing just fine. Plum exclaims that thanks to Lemon, they will look "gorgeous for opening day of Mr. Longface's Croquet Country Club". Raspberry says she's never played croquet before but loves to know how. Blueberry explains to her that it like golf but with wire hoops. Suddenly, Lemon's equipment goes haywire on all the girls. The other girls find it amusing until they discover themselves in the mirror of how crazy their hair is, which worries Lemon even more. However, Plum decides to lighten the mood by humorously saying "this could be a new look for us". The girls start laughing and joking about their crazy hair as Lemon tries to fix their hair. Eventually, the girls' hair is fixed and ready to go.
The girls head on over to the croquet court and try to open the door. Strawberry believes it's stuck but Blueberry points out that the door is locked. Lemon worries that their tardiness has caused Mr. Longface to lock them out. However Strawberry believes that Mr. Longface would not do such a thing just because they're late. She asks Plum and Raspberry to lift her up so that she can look. She sees that Mr. Longface is obsessively cutting the court grass to perfection, which is why nobody is playing yet. Mr. Longface tells the girls that since the grass is not leveled, the club is postponed. The girls don't see the problem with the grass, but Mr. Longface worries about the repercussions. The girls offer to help trim the grass, but he is having the Berrykin help.
With their plans canceled, Strawberry suggests they go on a picnic at the pond and everyone leaves to get ready. Lemon decides not to go through, wanting to do some work at the Salon to make things run a bit smoother. Strawberry offers to save her a sandwich before she heads off.
Lemon proceeds to work very late into the night trying to fix everything. It isn't long before she notices an ad in the nearby magazine. She decides to try to the product, convinced it would come in handy.
Time passes and the object she ordered arrives, so she invites the others to come and check out the "Salon-o-Matic". Despite her eagerness, the others are somewhat apprehensive. However Strawberry decides to test it out first. Just by pressing a button, her hair is washed, dried and styled. She even gets a manicure. The others are excited and they request an appointment as well so that they can give it a try. It's then Strawberry spots the magazine Lemon saw the ad in and she asks to borrow it.
At the cafe, Strawberry shows Plum, Raspberry and Orange "The Wonder Waffler" she purchased, which is supposed to make perfect waffles with the butter and syrup already included. Blueberry comes in to proudly say that she purchased the "Clean-o-Matic" and putting it into good use at this moment as she speaks with them. AtBlueberry Books she shows them what she meant. She is happy she purchased the "Clean-o-Matic" because now she has time to do her book reviews. Orange asks if she can borrow it much to Blueberry's delight.
In the meantime, Lemon is glad that things are running better but by now she's getting bored because she has a lot more free time on her hands. She isn't sure how to fill it and attempts to find work elsewhere, but she can't keep up. She does well at the cafe she isn't having any fun, and this happens when she tries to be a dance instructor at the Studio, and then at Orange Mart. Orange encourages her to try to make a new business.
It's then Lemon's Ferry Boat Service is born. To support Lemon's career change, the girls pay her daily visits by constantly going on picnics across the lake, which she finds fairly suspicious. Eventually realizing that a ferry isn't needed, she asks that they stop going out of their way for her sake, then closes the ferry service down.
Eventually, Blueberry and Orange start to worry and they head back to her place to find her packing her personal belongings. Seeing as she has nothing worth contributing anymore, she's come to the decision to leave for Berry Big City in hopes of finding work there. However, she'll come back to occasionally visit. This leaves Blueberry and Orange shattered, but the latter has an idea to stop Lemon from leaving. At the store, Orange has herself, Blueberry, Plum, and Raspberry sabotage their hair and claim the Salon-o-Matic is faulty, so that Lemon realizes that things were better off before. Lemon is convinced. As the plan is working, Blueberry wonders if Strawberry would have approved of this idea.
Meanwhile, Strawberry swings by Mr. Longface's Croquet Club to check on him. She explains how silly it is trying to make the lawn perfect. Mr. Longface is hesitant to hear where Strawberry is coming from, until she eventually swipes the clippers from him and tries to offer him a chance to go on a picnic and boat ride. She reminds him that everyone cares more about having fun, and about him than the lawn looking perfect.
Back at the salon, just as things begin returning to normal, Lemon gets to magazines and she finds a bunch of screws hidden beneath a magazine. She recognizes them and questions this. Orange tries to cover for the others before admitting that they sabotaged the Salon-o-Matic to prevent her from leaving after the Salon-o-Matic gets fixed.
In the meantime, Strawberry opens Mr. Longface's eyes, she realizes that Lemon could also benefit from these words of how important she is to Berry Bitty City so she excuses herself from the Croquet Club to go over to Lemon's salon. While Strawberry heads over, the other four girls are fighting with Lemon over the latter's departure. When Lemon tells the girls to let her leave because she is going to miss the bus, Orange exclaims "Good!". Just in time, Strawberry finally arrives and she discovers that Lemon has decided to leave as the other girls encourage her to stop Lemon. Strawberry decides to give Lemon a similar heart to hear she gave Mr. Longface. She tells Lemon that she is way more interactive and kind than that silly Salon-o-Matic and how they all love her the way she is. Strawberry reveals that she decided to return the waffle maker because was too perfect for her, and lacked that unique touch that she brought to her food when she made them herself. Hearing them, Blueberry wonders if she should get rid of the Clean-o-Matic too, much to Plum disapointment. However Strawberry says it's not necessary, and then she clarifies to Lemon how important she is to them and Berry Bitty City. Lemon agrees to stay, much to her friends' delight.
Just then, Mr. Longface shows up and apologizes for not visiting her Ferry while it was open. Lemon doesn't mind though, and she asks him to help her return the salon-o-Matic to the post office, to which he agrees. As they push it out the door the machine suddenly takes off and heads straight to the croquet court. As they chase after it the girls notice the top has popped off. Lemon manages to flip the switch to shut it off, but to the groups surprise they find out that it trimmed the lawn perfectly. Lemon decides to give the machine to Mr. Longface, so that he can use it for mowing, and they can get the croquet court opened. To celebrate, they let Lemon hit the very first ball on the court- only for it to fly off in the wrong direction after she swings at it.
Quotes[]
- Strawberry: Oh. Where do I begin? One, the machine is lousy at conversation, and boy is it useless at giving advice; Two, it doesn't tell you how nice you look or offer any fashion hints; Three, it won't laugh at any of our jokes; Four, it doesn't fit in a sleeping bag for sleepovers, and it won't even respond when you sent it an invitation. How rude; Five, it doesn't have a shoulder to cry on; And six, and this is by far the worst- it never hugs.
Lessons[]
Lemon learns the importance of not questioning her self-worth because of a machine that can do her job better. It doesn't replace her or change who she is, and her friends love her. It could never replace what she offers.
Meanwhile, Plum, Raspberry, Blueberry, and Orange learn that by deceiving someone to make them feel better, it can cause them more damage than help. Strawberry learns that sometimes people just need to be reminded that they are appreciated.
Mr. Longface learns a lesson in obsessing over being perfect. In his pursuit of a perfect lawn, he not only hindered progress, but it caused the others to worry about him.
Trivia[]
- When Plum's hair gets messed up she resembles a Troll doll.
- Also, Plum hair is different for the first time in this episode, preceding Nothing to Fear but Berries Themselves.
- This is the only episode in the series to end with a vignette transition instead of a fade-out.
- This episode shares the same name as a season 2 episode of Shaun the Sheep.
- The episode name is based on a saying Here today gone tomorrow.
- Lemon mentions returning what is left of her Salon-o-Matic. But realistically, most products can only be returned with the whole thing intact.
Goofs[]
- When Raspberry's hair is wet, its coloring looks different than in other instances in the series when it would occur.
External links[]
- Hair Today Gone Tomorrow at the Internet Movie Database