Writer Lucy Cavendish describes being sexually assaulted at the age of 13 by a hairdresser after her parents' separation left her feeling vulnerable and unable to confide in anyone. She recounts how, after her father left the family home in the late 1970s, she visited a newly opened salon in her Buckinghamshire town and was flattered by a hairdresser named Ali, who invited her to become a hair model, a relationship that led to her abuse.

The piece, published as a personal essay, reflects on how the emotional neglect and silence within her family at the time left her exposed to grooming by an adult man in his 30s. Now 59, Cavendish writes that the experience left her wrongly feeling responsible for the actions of an adult, and that it went on to affect her relationships with men for years afterwards.