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Barbers Share Their Funniest 'Oh Sh*t' Experience

Barbers are given quite a bit of trust.

It's scary enough to put your aesthetic into someone else's hands. Anybody with even a shred of vanity shutters when it's time to hand over the keys to their look.

But barbers have another heavy burden to carry: really sharp things.


Scissors, clippers, and razors all have one thing in common: they can cut through hair--and skin--with horrifying speed and efficiency.

So an experienced barber knows to be careful. They walk the line between creating a casual, relaxing environment while maintaining the composure required to do good work.

Sometimes, however, accidents happen.

stan849 asked, "Barbers of Reddit, what was your 'oh sh**' moment?"

A Watched Pot Messes Up a Haircut

"I was in school still at the time and was cutting this guy's hair, he brought his girlfriend along and she was watching like a HAWK over me."

"I'm halfway through the cut and almost done with the fade when the person next to me has their trolley too close to me so I go to move it but I didn't pay attention that my other hand had the clipper still running with no guard on."

"I made a nasty line through the fade that didn't look intentional at all and was sweating my a** off on how I was gonna fix this."

"The girlfriend of course points it out and the client is actually super chill about it and has me basically just run a super high 0.5 on the sides and back."

"3 years later and to this day I haven't had an incident that bad"

-- lefthook_hospital

The SENSATIONS

"Once had a dude pass out after a haircut."

"Based on what he told me, he had some sort of sensory issues, and the combination of heat, the neck strip, clipper buzzing and noise of the shop overwhelmed him."

"If you've ever dealt with a person fainting, you know what an 'oh sh**' moment it is; one minute dude is standing up and looking a little worried, next he is crumpling to the floor."

"I'm a little guy, but I was able to sort of 'catch' him and ease him down without anyone getting hurt. It was pretty scary, my first thought was that I somehow killed him."

Not in the Job Description

"Beauty school. This tweaker dude and his hippie girlfriend come in for $7 haircuts. Immediately, something seemed off about the girlfriend; she seemed a little not 'all there' and was cross-eyed and had dreads poking out of her hippie hat."

"The appointments were a bit staggered, so I finished the guy's 1-all-over buzz cut, and my classmate calls me over to 'help' with hers."

"When she took off the girl's hat, her hair was completely matted and filthy, and beneath the matted hair were stinking, suppurating sores COVERING her scalp. When we combed at the hair, her scalp would begin to give and split away wetly."

"We called over an instructor who tried to explain that we couldn't service someone who was literally oozing. She didn't seem to understand and they left without paying."

"I'll never forget that smell."

-- Pianissimeat

At Least it Didn't Combust

"Not me, but my mom who is a hairdresser."

"Did you know that some hair dye chemicals don't play well together? Turns out the lady had used some sort of home hair dye chemical that basically has tiny bits of metal in it."

"She didn't mention. My mom goes to dye her hair and puts the professional dye on it... and the hair more or less starts melting as the dye reacts."

"Her hair was totally ruined, there was no saving it. Only thing to do was to just get the new dye off as fast as possible. She was pretty understanding about the whole situation though."

-- ShiraCheshire

Willingly Spreading

"My coworker at a salon was cutting a girls hair and found lice - the girls mom had left her for the trim and she had to wait for her mom in the lobby."

"We spent the next hour or so frantically cleaning around all of the other clients and stylists to sanitize the whole place top to bottom."

"When the mom came back and asked her why she didn't have her hair cut, she replied 'they found out.'"

"WHO BRINGS THEIR LICE RIDDEN CHILD TO THE SALON?!"

-- mccannisms

Set the Tone

"The barber my dad took us kids to growing up kept a plastic ear in a big glass jar of water. Told all the little kids (jokingly) that it was the ear of a little boy who wouldn't be still when getting a hair cut and he accidentally cut this kid's ear off.

"Said he was keeping it in 'formaldehyde' to remind us all to be very still. It largely had the desired effect on the younger kids."

-- redditclark

A Whole New Level of Customer Loyalty

"The typical not a barber here but i use to go to a local barber college to get my hair cut because it was cheap. One girl had never cut a white guy's hair and her teacher asked if i was ok with it."

"I said sure she has to learn some how and its just hair it can be shaved and should grow back. Told her how i wanted the hair cut, pretty simple a little short and off the ears."

"Jokingly said do not take my ears off."

Long story short i left with a bald head and a band-aid on the top of my left ear, after bleeding like a stuck pig due to blood thinners!! where she nicked me with the scissors. Even her teacher couldn't save the hair cut."

"I did my best to try and help the girl calm down as she was ugly crying!!"

"Went back a month later and asked if the girl was there, thankfully she was and i simply smiled and said round two...she did it perfect second time around."

-- Gibbinthegremlin

Steering Clear

"Brother of a barber who used to be a hair model? back when I used to have a good head of hair."

"His instructor told a story during one of the shows about a mobster falling asleep during a shave. While shaving him, he accidentally cut off a mole."

"He said he kept on putting towels on him and then snuck across the street and hid in a bar watching through the window until the mobster left."

"Since he was only renting the chair in the shop he grabbed all his stuff and found another place to work after he was sure the mobster was gone."

-- charlie2135

Layers, Like an Onion

"During barber school I was the most eager to learn to straight razor shave of all the customers, so the instructor gave me all the hardest shaves..."

"...including an 80 year old dude whose skin was so loose and unhealthy that each time I pulled the blade over his flesh, it brought up just as much dead skin as it did hair."

"I wasn't cutting him or anything, he just had that much dead skin just chillin' on his face every other week."

-- Perpetualinvalidity

The 1%

"My dad let me line myself up once"

"F***ed up"

"Decided to cut the whole thing off and go bald"

"The plus side to being black is that 99% of the time being bald looks fine"

"I guess I was part of the 1% that looks like a f***ing Whopper Malt Ball."

-- YungNi**et788

Getting Too Fancy With It

"When I was training, maybe a few months in so I had a bit of confidence, enough for me to not realise I still didn't know what I was doing, i was cutting this guys hair and I got to his fringe."

"He wanted it really short and I was standing in front of him cutting along his forehead whilst chatting away."

"I took my scissors away to comb his hair but like, flicked them(??) around my fingers and they swung round and hit the guy right in the f***ing iris."

"I froze. He froze. Eventually i asked 'did I just hit you in the eye by the way?' He said 'I think so.' Trying to act like it wasn't sore for some reason. It eventually blew up in the shop once his shock wore off and someone else got him out the door."

"Found out a month later his wife was a nurse and she used some kind of eye drop and his eye was only scratched. Thank god because I thought I blinded him. I gave him a free haircut next time. Just the one though."

-- SkinandBun

Yikes

"Hairdresser of 12 years. I once was combing a young girl's hair that had just got her cartilage pierced a few days prior."

"Sure enough I snag it with the comb and rip the barbell straight through her ear. I went physically weak at the knees and cried a bit. It bled a ton. But she was (and is) the kindest client I've ever had."

"She refused to not pay me, and never told any of her family, whom are my clients as well, what happened. Still cringe at this moment to this day."

-- CookPizzaBi***

Roaches Don't Discern 

"I worked at a prestigious salon in an affluent neighborhood of Atlanta. While I was shampooing a clients hair, a roach fell from the open rafter ceiling right into the the shampoo bowl. I had to finish washing her hair without freaking out as to not cause a scene."

"I was not graceful about it by any means, but I managed to keep the client from finding out about it. When we were done, I tried to contain the demon roach by covering it with a towel and ran to the back to get the salon assistant/maintenance man to take care of the problem. Good times."

-- AlliWal0506

Before the Glue Dries

"A hairdresser I know related the story of doing a 'blue rinse set' woman hair. While she was pulling the hair back she saw this obscenely large pinky white area opening up before her eyes."

"The woman's recent facelift glue line had given away. The client was completely oblivious. Much consternation from the staff followed, though handled well enough to keep the customer."

"Not something I would ever want to face."

-- Cremasterau

Deadlocked

"I've been cutting a baby's hair and accidentally cut a little wound in its ear because it was moving too much."

"As soon as I realized I had a pretty weird staring contest with the baby and imagined in my head that it will start screaming any moment."

"But it didn't, we were just staring at each other for like a half minute that felt like eternity and after that I continued with the haircut."

-- halbmondkatze

Tougher Cleanup Than the Usual Sweeping...

"My mom is a mostly retired hairdresser, but there are a handful of customers she still keeps because they have been coming to her for nearly 50 years. These ladies are getting pretty old and often have health problems."

"One lady had her colostomy bag busy open in the middle of getting her hair styled, so literally 'oh sh**.'"

-- heimdahl81

Under His Wing

"I was a hairstylist for 17 years. In the mid 90's, 2 brothers walk in. One about 17 or so, the other about 10. 17 yr old leaves. My friend gets the 10 yr old."

"Asks him what he wants. A Mohawk he says. Mohawk? Are you sure?? Yes, yes says the kid. And he gets a mohawk."

"17 yr old brother comes back and is visibly confused seeing his brother with a mohawk. WHY did you get a mohawk? He asks. Little brother says, i ASKED for a mohawk and got this!"

"The older brother says, NOOOO, you were supposed to ask for a BOWLCUT !! So the younger one forgot to say the right name, and got a completely different haircut. Ofc this was when bowlcuts were popular."

-- crkachkake

The Absolute Worst Ways To Break Up With Someone

Reddit user StarGazingMouse asked: 'What is the Worst way to break up with someone?'

Two people sitting on the sofa looking sad
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Ending a relationship is never easy.

True, some people who have an unfortunate amount of experience doing so have developed tactics and methods to ensure a lack of anger and/or tears.

This might include breaking up in a specific restaurant, having certain music playing while doing so, or timing things out just perfectly.

Of course, those with experience might also tell you certain breakup methods that are guaranteed to end in acrimony and vitriol.

Keep reading...Show less
A bandaid is set over a crack in the street
Photo by Luis Villasmil

So many people try to do away with scars and blemishes.

They can be seen as ugly.

But they tell the stories of our lives.

Maybe it's not the best memory.

But you're still alive to tell the tale.

However, not all scars are from some epic story.

Keep reading...Show less

What author has only been outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare? It’s no mystery—it’s Agatha Christie, of course. But where did she get all of her ideas? Well, Christie’s story is just as gripping and twisted as any of her novels.

1. Her Parents Had A Close Bond

When it comes to Agatha Christie, her twisted family tree is the first mystery to untangle. Though her family was well-off, her parents’ backstory is seriously creepy. Her mother Clara’s family had sent the nine-year-old girl to live with an aunt. That aunt had a 17-year-old stepson named Frederick. Well, at some point—hopefully when Clara was a bit older—the pair fell in love.

They had three children—the youngest being Agatha.

2. She Couldn’t Be Stopped

Agatha’s childhood was normal and happy—if not a bit lonely, thanks to the age gap between her and her siblings. This wasn’t helped by her mother’s bizarre plan for her education. Despite the fact that her siblings were in school, Clara wanted to teach Agatha herself—and she didn’t want her to learn to read until the age of eight. Well, nothing could hold a bored and lonesome Agatha back from what she wanted.

She learned to read by four and escaped into a world of imagination—until it all came to a crashing halt.

3. Her World Turned Upside Down

File:Agatha Christie as a child No 1.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

When Agatha was just 11 years old, her family experienced a devastating tragedy. That was when her beloved father passed from pneumonia and chronic kidney disease. As she later reflected, his death marked the end of her childhood. And that wasn’t the only problem. The family didn’t have a lot of money without him, and her siblings had moved out, leaving her alone with her mother.

Despite their financial difficulties, the Christie family managed to send Agatha away to a series of good schools. It was there that she finally began to find her footing.

4. They Rejected Her

Agatha may not have excelled in the music programs the way she expected to, but the social environment—as opposed to her lonely childhood—seems to have been good for her. After graduation, she began to write short stories. Sadly, this was no overnight success story. She was the recipient of many a rejection letter—but her stubborn streak would, in this case, end up being a saving grace.

5. She Couldn’t Get A Break

Agatha kept her nose to the grindstone and penned her first novel, Snow Upon the Desert. Unfortunately, she was in for a major disappointment. Not just one, but six different publishers rejected her work. A glimmer of hope came when a famous novelist introduced her to his agent…who then told her he didn’t want the book.

Well, at least he encouraged her to try again? In the meantime, Agatha found a number of tempting distractions to soothe her bruised ego.

6. She Waited For The Right One

File:Agatha Christie as a young woman.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

Publishers may not have wanted Agatha Christie—but plenty of men did. She was pretty and easygoing, with a lively social calendar. As a result, Agatha had a slew of suitors after her. She looked forward to getting married—but none of the men she met really made a lasting impression. However, another man did…and this one had staying power.

7. He Came On Strong

Archibald Christie approached Agatha at a dance and asked for three dances on her card, which was the custom at the time. After the first two, Archie asked for three more—which was quite unconventional. He left a mark on Agatha, which was a good thing, because he’d already made up his mind that he wanted to marry her. After three months, he proposed. There was just one problem.

8. She Already Had Other Plans

Though Archie had ruthlessly pursued her for months, Agatha was already engaged. In fact, to someone she actually liked quite a bit. But though Reggie Lucy had proposed, he’d also hesitated to rush into marriage. It was a mistake that would end up proving fatal to their relationship. After they parted ways, Agatha was free to accept Archie’s proposal—but that wasn’t their only roadblock.

9. Things Came Between Them

File:Archibald Christie 1915.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

Agatha didn’t want to have to wait to marry the man she thought was the love of her life—but her mother was struggling to keep her home, and Archie didn’t have any money. She told Archie that she couldn’t marry him, because she had to support her mother. Well, after the hurdles he’d crossed so far, he wasn’t about to take no for an answer.

Archie’s persistence paid off, and Agatha eventually accepted—but sadly, their fairy tale soon turned into a living nightmare.

10. Disaster Disrupted Their Union

Agatha and Archie had a long engagement—but it wasn’t because they were getting to know each other. Archie was a pilot, and when WWI broke out, he went to France to fight. When he came home for Christmas in 1914, they quickly wed with the little time they had together. To say there was no honeymoon would be an understatement.

11. Conflict Separated Them

Agatha and Archie Christie spent the first six months of their marriage apart. While Archie fought, Agatha helped with the war effort in Britain. Despite her long hours at the Red Cross, she was still alone without her husband. And what happens when Agatha Christie is left alone? Well, she puts pen to paper.

12. She Got Back To Work

File:Herter - In the name of mercy give.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

While working with the Red Cross in 1916, Agatha met a number of Belgian soldiers and refugees. These men would serve as inspiration for her newest character: Hercule Poirot, a clever Belgian detective. He became the centerpiece of her second novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Two different publishers rejected it before one finally agreed to pick it up.

The Bodley Head publishing house signed her for five novels—but Agatha had no idea what she was getting into.

13. They Took Advantage Of Her

Like many young artists and authors, Agatha Christie was just happy that someone finally wanted to back her work—but she didn’t realize there was a dark side to the contract she’d just signed. The pay wasn’t great, and she was now stuck with them for five books. As her popularity began to increase, the sense that they were exploiting her also grew.

14. She Had A Family

While Agatha struggled with the professional side of things, the end of WWI meant that her personal life was finally able to move full speed ahead. After Archie returned home, Agatha got pregnant and gave birth to a healthy, beautiful baby girl. They named her Rosalind. But, as we’ll come to see, not everything was perfect in paradise.

15. They Were Big Travelers

File:British Empire Tour 1922 Belcher.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

During the 1920s, the British Empire Exhibition was touring the world to promote the last vestiges of the Empire. Agatha and her husband, Archie, were both involved in the promotion of said exhibition, and they went gung-ho about it. The Christies toured the world alongside the exhibition, going as far as South Africa and New Zealand—but there was a sad side to their world travels. They had to leave their young daughter behind for months at a time.

And soon enough, circumstances would soon land them back at home.

16. He Tried To Send Her Away

It seemed like the Christies were finally getting the honeymoon that WWI had denied them—but when they returned home, they were in big trouble. They were nearly broke. When Agatha brought up their money problems, Archie’s reaction was brutal. He suggested that she move back in with her mother. Was it a red flag? Oh, we’ll get to that…

In the meantime, Agatha rebuffed his idea and instead, began writing more—this time, with more success.

17. They Got Their Lives On Track

Archie got a job with the City of London, and Agatha’s writing began to take off. With the money they made, they bought a car and a house which they named Styles, after her first mystery novel. But all the new, shiny things in their life couldn’t distract from the cracks that were beginning to show.

18. He Pulled Away From Her

File:Agatha Christie in a play at Cocokington Court.jpg - Wikipediaen.m.wikipedia.org

For one, it seemed like Archie preferred to while away the hours on the golf course over spending time with his family. When Agatha suggested that they try for another baby, he gave her a vehement no. Agatha appeared unperturbed by her husband’s indifference and threw herself into finishing her newest novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

It would go on to become one of her most talked-about books yet—but Agatha would be far too distracted to enjoy her growing success.

19. She Lost Her Best Friend

In April of 1926, Agatha lost her mother Clara. Despite all their hardships—losing Agatha’s father and all their financial problems—they’d remained incredibly close. The loss of her mother sent Agatha spiraling. She attended the funeral alone, as Archie was in Spain. But even when he returned, he left her alone at her mother’s home while he went to his club in London.

Soon, it all became too much.

20. She Was In Trouble

After losing her mother, the press began to print reports that up-and-coming mystery novelist Agatha Christie had left London for Biarritz, Switzerland in order to recover from a breakdown. They claimed that she was completely fatigued from working herself to the bone. Whether or not this was true, one thing was clear: the combination of career pressures, her husband’s behavior, and the loss of her mother had truly wreaked havoc on Agatha.

21. He’d Stepped Out

The Secret of Chimneys | Agatha Christie - The Secret of Chi… | Flickrwww.flickr.com

Unfortunately for Agatha, the worst was yet to come. In August of 1926, Archie made a disturbing confession. He’d been having a long affair with a young woman he’d met on the golf course. Her name was Nancy Neele, and they’d been carrying on for a whopping 18 months. Agatha was shocked. She’d never suspected a thing. And then, as the truth set in, so did the sense of hurt and disgust.

22. He Didn’t Stray Far

For months, Archie had seemed like a stranger—and now it all became clear. Here’s where the betrayal cut even deeper. In better times, Agatha frequently invited friends to stay with them at Styles. She’d actually invited Nancy numerous times, and Nancy had accepted. To add insult to injury, most of the people in their social circle knew about the affair.

Now Agatha was not only hurt—she was humiliated.

23. The Odds Were Against Her

Archie immediately left for two weeks. Agatha had her sister and her secretary to confide in, but neither could provide her with the answers she was looking for. Her sister told her they’d patch things up, but her secretary was more pessimistic, saying “He won’t stay.” Agatha’s daughter was the cruelest of all. Eight-year-old Rosalind told her mother Archie wanted to be with her, not Agatha—saying, “It’s you he doesn’t seem to like.”

Kids truly have no filter.

24. She Tried Everything

1960s 1970s Agatha Christie vintage EARLY paperback books Poirot ...vintagebookworms.com

After two weeks, Archie returned. Agatha begged him to give the marriage another chance, proposing a year-long trial period. Ever the sensitive type, Archie would only agree to three months. Agatha tried what she could to make things work, and the pair went on vacation together. It was quiet and uneventful—but when they returned home, they fell back into their old habits.

25. The Pressure Was Mounting

On top of everything, Agatha’s publisher was begging her for her next novel, and magazines were begging for stories. She could’ve used the free time, but when Archie came up with excuse after excuse to get out of the house, it just made her angrier. Their fights started as screaming matches and escalated into Agatha throwing a teapot at Archie.

He may have been the one engaged in an 18-month-long affair, but for Archie, it was a bridge too far.

26. She Couldn’t Take It Anymore

By late 1926, Agatha was like a grenade with the pin pulled—ready to explode at any moment. And Archie was the one who made the mistake of dropping her. On the morning of December 3, he told her that he couldn’t spend the weekend with her. Eventually, she got it out of him that he’d be spending it with Nancy, and that he wanted to marry her.

Agatha finally had to face the truth.

27. She Was Cracking At The Edges

textPhoto by Rhamely on Unsplash

Archie left for work, and Agatha and Rosalind spent the day with his mother, who noticed that Agatha was behaving erratically. Later that night, Agatha ate alone and waited for Archie to come back. He never showed up. At around 9:45, she got in her car and went for a drive. Though Agatha was used to building a mystery, not even she could have predicted what would happen next.

28. Her Car Was There—But She Wasn’t

On the morning of December 4, 1926, a local cattleman found an abandoned car with the headlights on at Newland Corner in Surrey—approximately 15 miles from Styles. Someone else called the authorities to alert them, and they soon found the name of the car’s owner: Agatha Christie. The writer, however, was nowhere to be found.

It seemed like something out of one of her novels—but in fact, it was even more twisted.

29. His Reaction Was Brutal

The authorities showed up at Styles and informed the secretary, Charlotte, that it appeared that Agatha was missing. She called Archie, who was, of course, with Nancy. His reaction was characteristically callous. He came back and claimed he had no knowledge of his wife’s whereabouts, and that she hadn’t told him anything. Or so he said.

30. She’d Left Him A Letter

The Old Swan Hotel | A long established hotel in Harrogate, … | Flickrwww.flickr.com

Archie Christie played it cool with the authorities—but he was hiding a dark secret. When he’d returned to Styles, he’d found a note that Agatha had left him. Before anyone else had a chance to look at it, he burned it. It doesn’t take a mystery writer to realize that’s extremely suspect behavior.

31. She Left More Clues

Agatha had also left a letter for her secretary Charlotte, which gave at least a few more clues. She mentioned that Charlotte should cancel Agatha’s weekend plans, and that she “cannot stay in this house” any longer. When the detectives investigating her disappearance learned about the problems between Agatha and Archie, they began to fear that she’d done something drastic and intensified the search.

Unfortunately, this drew the attention of the press.

32. Everyone Knew

Her stories may have been wildly popular, but Agatha was a very private person. Unfortunately, after she was missing for a few days, the authorities had no choice but to send out a missing person's notice. Archie’s fears were twofold—one, that the case would expose his affair with Nancy Neele to the public, and two, that his infidelity had perhaps driven Agatha to take her own life.

Ultimately, only one of these outcomes would come true.

33. She’d Reached Out

1960s 1970s Agatha Christie vintage EARLY paperback books ...vintagebookworms.com

Agatha’s name was making headlines in the UK and even made it all the way to the front page of the New York Times. As the local authorities gathered search parties, another clue emerged. Agatha had mailed a letter after her disappearance, sometime in the early morning on Saturday the 4th. She’d written to Archie’s brother Campbell, informing him she planned to go to an unnamed spa in Yorkshire.

The tone of the letter didn’t give any indications as to Agatha’s mental state or anything else—but at the very least, the authorities now had another hint as to where she might be.

34. They Thought He’d Bumped Her Off

However, when the authorities realized that Archie had spent the Friday night with Nancy at a friend’s home, in what staff of the time called an “unofficial engagement party”, they began to count him as a suspect in Agatha’s disappearance. After all, during one of their bigger fights, Agatha had told Archie that she would never allow for a divorce. It was also during this period that investigators discovered he’d burned a letter from Agatha. He refused to let them know what it contained.

35. He Tried To Turn Their Suspicions

Between this and the constant hounding from the press, Archie was beginning to crack—just as his wife had. On Friday, December 10—just barely seven days since Agatha’s disappearance—the Daily Mail published an interview they’d conducted with Archie. In it, he claimed that Agatha had talked about how easy it would be to disappear before.

He also suggested that she’d disappeared voluntarily or had some sort of episode over the possibility of murder or suicide.

36. They All Joined In

File:Arthur Conan Doyle with his family at Waterloo Station.jpg ...commons.wikimedia.org

Other mystery writers got involved with the search too. Novelist Dorothy L. Sayer showed up at one search, looked around for a minute, and then authoritatively stated that Agatha wasn’t there. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, gave one of Agatha’s gloves to a medium, who said that she was still alive and that she’d pop back up “next Wednesday”.

It was all quite sensational—but the authorities were finally about to get a significant lead in the case.

37. There Was A Credible Sighting

Staff at a spa hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire, began to report that one of their guests looked like Agatha. Authorities thought it would be best to allow someone close to her to make the identification, so they waited for Archie to travel there. Late on Tuesday, December 14 (not Wednesday, as the medium had predicted), Archie identified the woman as his wife, Agatha Christie.

38. She Hinted As Her Reasons

One bizarre clue had made the authorities and the press sure that she was Agatha. She’d checked into the hotel using the surname Neele—as in, Archie’s mistress. Agatha had been at the hotel for ten days. Other guests had even spotted her reading the news about her own disappearance, yet none had clocked her as the author. Or, if they had, they’d kept her privacy.

After all, many famous guests frequented the hotel, preferring to stay incognito. And so, the question of where had been answered—but what about all the others?

39. She Didn’t Make Sense

File:Agatha Christie Memorial (cropped).jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

When the authorities asked Agatha what the deal was, her response was surprising. She’d said she’d been in a confused state when she left home, couldn’t remember anything of the previous days, and that she was just remembering who she was again now after seeing Archie. To say they were skeptical would be an understatement. And they had good reason to be.

40. She’d Planned It All

When she sat down to speak to Archie, Agatha revealed the twisted truth. She said that she’d staged the disappearance after realizing her marriage was really and truly over. And that wasn’t the most twisted part. She’d had an ally—and no, not her secretary Charlotte. She’d recruited her brother’s wife, Nan, who had spent the intervening days acting extremely upset at Agatha’s disappearance.

Then she revealed how she’d done it.

41. She’d Set Everything Up Carefully

Agatha had planned many of the details of her disappearance as meticulously as she did the plots of her books. She’d left a fur coat, a suitcase of clothing, and her driver’s license inside the car to make it look as if something terrible had happened. Then, she’d rolled the car off the road in neutral, making sure to leave the headlights on to draw attention.

Agatha then took the train to London, where she stayed the night with her sister-in-law Nan. But what purpose was this all serving?

42. She’d Neglected One Detail

1960s 1970s Agatha Christie vintage EARLY paperback books ...vintagebookworms.com

It seemed as though Agatha meant to stay away for three or four days, just to make Archie agonize over what he’d done. But there was one thing that she hadn’t counted on. She’d written her letter to Archie’s brother and sent it to his workplace over the weekend, expecting that when he got it, he’d send the authorities to the spas of Harrogate to find her.

Unfortunately, they never came knocking—and the delay led to an unintended consequence.

43. It Didn’t Go As She’d Planned

Despite the theatrical nature of her antics, Agatha Christie was, lest we forget, a very private person. If the authorities had discovered her at Harrogate on the Monday or Tuesday, as she’d intended, it’s entirely possible the press wouldn’t have picked up the story at all. After all, you can plot a mystery novel to a T—but while some readers will solve it ably, many can get left in the dark.

44. She Had To Deal With The Consequences

Agatha Christie quickly retreated to her home, away from the prying eyes of the press, who she refused to speak to. Neither they nor the general public was privy to much more than the barest details of her disappearance and discovery—and a claim of amnesia. As a result, the backlash was immediate and brutal. Many believed that it was a publicity stunt…or, even more horribly, a plot to frame Archie for murder.

45. She Was Still In Denial

a row of books sitting on top of a book shelfPhoto by Giovana Miketen on Unsplash

Back at home, the press hounded Agatha and Archie for details, while the authorities got into debates about passing on the cost of all the searches to the Christie family. And, while Agatha thought she and Archie would continue to pass the year-long “trial” period he’d never agreed to, she eventually had to face the devastating truth. Her marriage was over.

This time, as opposed to a mysterious disappearance, Agatha engineered another kind of escape: a long trip to the Canary Islands in Spain.

46. They Escaped From It All

Both her daughter Rosalind and her secretary Charlotte accompanied Agatha on the trip. Not only was it a timely refuge from the scrutiny, but it also gave Agatha plenty of time to write. Her disappearance ended up having an unintended consequence. While she hadn’t exactly been a household name before, she was one now, and her book sales eventually went up.

But there was, of course, an unpleasant matter to address back home.

47. They Each Had Blackmail Material

When Agatha and Archie finally addressed the subject of divorce, they found themselves in a brutal stalemate. Agatha could reveal his affair to the world and bring all sorts of negative attention to Nancy Neele. But, if Archie chose, he could expose the truth about her disappearance—that it was staged, and not part of an amnesiac episode.

Archie agreed to give Agatha custody of Rosalind as long as they each kept quiet.

48. She Took A Chance

File:Archibald Christie 1909.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

Agatha and Archie finally got their divorce in 1928. To add insult to injury, Archie married Nancy Neele just a week after the courts finalized it. When Rosalind went back to school, Agatha was alone again—but not for long. While planning her next trip abroad, Agatha made an impulsive decision to cancel what she’d already booked and take the Orient Express (it was a real train!) to Baghdad. It would wind up changing her life.

49. She Met A Younger Man

There, she met a British archaeologist named Max Mallowan. It wasn’t long before the two fell for each other. Agatha had finally found love again after two of the worst years of her life—but there was a scandalous side to her romance. Max was a full 13 years younger than her. Coming on the heels of her divorce, Agatha had many reservations, as did those closest to her.

Would Max pass the test?

50. She Didn’t Want To Repeat History

One of the major problems in her relationship with Archie—aside from his affair, of course—is that she’d made a lot more money than him, but refused to let him have any. Agatha took stock of her past before accepting Max’s proposal of marriage. She came up with two conditions for him.

First, they’d split everything evenly, including the profits from her books. Second? He had to vow to never take up golf. Was it a happily ever after? Well, yes and no.

51. She Moved On

File:Agatha Christie collection.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

Agatha continued to produce novels at a prolific rate, and the memory of her disappearance faded into the past. She lived happily with Max until the outbreak of WWII, when he went to serve in North Africa. As she had during WWI, Agatha filled her time helping by volunteering at a hospital pharmacy. But as she spent each day banking what she’d learned about various poisons in order to use the info while crafting plots for her novels, someone was watching her.

52. They Had Their Suspicions

During WWII, British intelligence agency MI-5 opened an investigation into beloved author Agatha Christie. Her 1941 book N or M featured a character named Major Bletchley. MI-5 feared it was a reference to the covert codebreaking center called Bletchley Park and that she had a man on the inside. Christie’s explanation for this coincidence was that she had been stuck at Bletchley Park while on the train to London, and she used the name for one of her “least lovable characters” as an act of petty revenge.

No doubt MI-5 was relieved to hear that.

53. She Cut Him Out

Agatha came up with two of the most beloved characters in fiction: Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Shockingly, Christie actually despised Hercule Poirot. She denounced him as a “detestable, bombastic, tiresome, egocentric little creep.” As a result, whenever she would put on theatrical adaptations of her own novels, she would completely remove him from the stories whenever possible.

54. She Never Stopped

File:Agatha Christie and Max Mallowan in 1950.png - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

Even after Max’s return from WWII, Agatha’s output never slowed down. She published an average of one novel a year, even as her health failed her. While readers often searched her work for revelations about her mysterious disappearance, it was her last novel that gave the most devastating glimpse into the dark truth about her final years.

Experts who studied her work believe that the changes in her writing style show she may have been experiencing Alzheimer’s or dementia.

55. She’s A Legend

Agatha Christie died of natural causes at her home in January of 1976. She was 85 years old. In her lifetime, she sold over 300 million books and, at the time of her death, was the “best-selling novelist in history.” Agatha’s talent for crafting mysteries has cemented her place in history—and she kept the fun going, even after her death.

56. She Left A Treasure Trove

Many years after Christie’s death, one of her former trunks was bought by a fan. Inside, there was a locked box that the fan actually refused to open, content to keep the mystery alive. Four years later, the box was eventually opened: It contained gold coins and diamond jewelry worth tens of thousands. Mysteries are great and all, but I think I'd take the treasure.

57. She Did Speak About It Once

File:Agatha Christie in Nederland (detectiveschrijfster), bij ...commons.wikimedia.org

While she remained mostly tight-lipped, Agatha actually broke her silence on the subject of her disappearance in a long-forgotten interview with the Daily Mailin February 1928, some 14 months later. She claimed that she was dazed and had lost memory after hitting her head in the car, winding up at Harrogate believing she was a woman from South Africa named “Tessa” Neele.

The problem? There were so many holes in her story that it read like a pair of fishnet stockings.

58. She Kept Trying To Hide The Truth

For one, she’d used the name “Teresa Neele” to check in. And for another, memory loss and secondary personality don’t occur in tandem. If she truly was an amnesiac, she would’ve been wracking her brain trying to remember who she was—which doesn’t fit with all the accounts of her remarking on her similarities to the pictures of Agatha which appeared in the newspaper.

But did she ever come clean?

59. She Crafted A Story

In her autobiography, Agatha made claims about how broke she was during and after the demise of her marriage—which for many women of the era, would’ve been a real issue. There’s just one problem. It wasn’t true. After her mother’s death, Agatha came into a generous chunk of money, which is not to count the fact that her career was taking off. So why lie?

60. She’s Forever A Mystery

1800s Library | This photograph is free to use according to … | Flickrwww.flickr.com

Well, no one crafts a story quite like Agatha Christie. She made herself appear beset by both marital troubles and financial pressure: the perfect set-up for a complete mental breakdown. While Christie never explicitly mentioned what happened in her autobiography, she certainly implies that those were factors.

In keeping with the nature of her books, the episode in her life remains a complete mystery to this day.

Man getting a headache after hearing something ridiculous
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

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