I first met Megan Duthart the Wednesday before spring break. We both agreed I needed a haircut.
I walked into her "flat" around 9 p.m. that Friday. Upon crossing the threshold, I heard several voices talking over music coming from a small speaker. Duthart was finishing a rigatoni Bolognese for her girlfriend while her teammates and friends sat at a table nearby. "Hello!" she shouted from the kitchen.
Duthart is a born entertainer, a thespian. She studied production at the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, which boasts alumni such as Adele, Jessie J. and Amy Winehouse. She was born in Richmond, a burrow in southwest London, and attended the prestigious school from ages 16 to 18. She spent her days organizing and occasionally acting in renditions of Broadway classics, avant garde off-Broadway productions and their ephemeral off-off-Broadway cousins.
She sat me down in front of a large, full-sized mirror and asked, "So, what are you aiming for here?" through a thick London accent. I showed her a picture. She wet my hair and began to cut.
During her time at the BRIT School she rowed for private club teams on the Thames and around England. Duthart caught the eye of several recruiters through the British World Class Start program. She became a dominant competitor in junior English rowing, collecting two gold medals in double sculls at the Metropolitan Regatta and a silver medal at the junior women's 18 double sculls at the Junior British Championships.
As she cut my hair, she conducted the room. She simultaneously slipped in and out of the conversations of nearby teammates, answered my questions and cut my hair. She was on stage, managing a production; she was totally in her element.
Working in theater and rowing both require significant time commitments. The demands of managing major theater productions don't leave time for 20-kilometer workouts and near constant training.
 "How does that look?" Duthart asked, holding a mirror to reveal the back of my head. She stood back to admire her work. She had only recently started cutting the hair of friends and teammates, but the results looked almost professional.
She credits Saturday morning cartoons for showing her everything she needed to know to transition to American life.
"I really liked American cartoons … Johnny Test, Danny Phantom, Ben 10, a ton of them," she said.
Her training as an actor helped her develop certain accents that she often uses to blend in with her peers.
"Hi, I'm from Olympia," she said in a perfectly effected Pacific Northwestern accent. "I use that [accent] in class sometimes …. People hear an accent and look back to see."
She pulled her towel from around my shoulders and began to sweep the hair from her hardwood floor. If you spend any time around Duthart, you begin to understand that she is a priceless asset to Washington State University rowing and the community at large.
And if anyone asks, she gives a mean haircut.
