Thursday, May 3, 2012

New Barber = Too Short Haircut


Woke up, got out of bed, combed the hair across my head. Oops, that’s a Beatles song. Anyway, when I woke up last Thursday morning, I made a spur of the moment decision to go to the barber rather than wait another week or so. Because it was unplanned, I didn’t make an appointment. Not that it mattered at this particular barbershop. It seemed like a first come first served establishment.
 They open at 8 a.m. and when I got there at about 8:15, the guy who had given me a haircut the last three times was already busy with a customer and another person was waiting. Pretty soon, a female barber whom I’ve never seen before showed up and motioned me to her chair. I haven’t had a woman cut my hair since 1981when I was new to this country and my aunt took me to her hairdresser. Prior to that in the Philippines, most of my haircuts were done by women after high school but not too often because those were my long hair years. In those days, I only had a trim to snip off the split ends that I got from playing too much tennis under the hot sun.
I’m not real picky nowadays about who cuts my hair after my barber of almost two decades got too expensive for my budget. Besides he was going to retire soon anyway. So I sit on Sylvia’s chair (I got her name before I left) and she asked me what kind of haircut I wanted, and I told her – a high fade, shaved at the sides and slightly long on top. She asked me if I wanted a #1 or #0 blade for the sides of my head, and I said #0. So she starts using the electric razor on the sides of my head and it seemed to be going okay. Then she switched the trimmer adjustment and proceeded to do the top of my head. That was new to me because in the past, the barber would use scissors and a comb to cut that part of my hair. The razor size that Sylvia was using felt a little too short so I told her not to cut the top too short. When all was said and done, my hair appeared okay by the looks of it in the barbershop mirrors. I complimented Sylvia that she got it right the first time and she said to ask for the #8 blade next time. I paid her and went home. Upon further review after seeing my close up in the mirror, I was shocked to see how short the hair was on the top of my head. They were actually spiky! Well, a little too late now. Perhaps a #12 blade would be more to my liking next time. If there was a good thing that came out of this, it is that Sylvia speaks English very well so we can communicate better. The previous guy spoke mostly Spanish and it was harder to tell him how I wanted my hair cut. In the meantime, don’t anybody touch the top of my head because it could be considered a deadly weapon.
Introducing: forehead in widescreen format and spiky hair - no gel required.

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