Today I went in for a hair cut. I have been working long hours and have not gotten a cut in six weeks, so my hair was pretty long. I arrived early at 9:55am. He told me he had an opening at 10:15 and this is
when my appointment was. When I got to the shop there were no other customers present. I asked if he was expecting someone else but he said no that I was the next appointment. I am 110% sure I was told 10:15 because I remember thinking I had better leave by 10:00 at the latest.
The Barbers appearance was gaunt and his skin had a grayish hue. I did not make a judgment about this because our summer has had little in in the way of sun. As I sat in the chair I noticed a few things. The calendar was still on June, he was taking appointments on the back of an envelope and the candy jar was empty. Note: (The jar was previously filled with Tootsie Roll and Bubble Gum Pops. It then it was
Dum-Dum's and now nothing. This may be significant.)
The hair cut itself started out kind of violent. My right ear was clipped a few times and the comb action was not very comfortable. He tended to comb against the grain. As the haircut proceeded, he seemed to smooth out. During this evolution he received a number of cell phone calls. None of these calls resulted in
an envelope notation and the one side of the dialog I could hear, seemed to consist of single syllable exclamations. In addition, one caller was asked “Did I call you? This was strange because he clearly answered the phone.
Another observation was that during the general chatting between Barber and Customer he often lost track of the conversation and even stated his brain was not working right. I normally do most of the talking but I deliberately gave him openings, which he did not exploit.
As for the cut quality I would give it a solid "B" although I will defer the final grade too my wife when she returns from a short trip. I must also say that the cut was in danger of being a "D" because as he started to remove the cloth around my neck I did notice a rather large bun of hair left on the back right side of my head, kind of like a Samurai.. I pointed this out because it was too big to hide and it would have looked like I had a large head tumor. He quickly took care of it and sent me on my way. Another surprise was that the cost went up to 9 dollars. This is a 20% increase since the last cut. In the money drawer there was little cash and I noticed a half smoked Newport. Still, I think I will continue to go to him. 9 bucks is still pretty good and from the front I think my cut is ok. When I feel the back of my head I don’t perceive any divots or raise ridges.
TOTAL CUT TIME: 12 Minutes (includes cell phone calls and bun removal)
Comments welcome.