April /2001 |
The Game
By chaucer
As most people on this board know, I've grown my flattop out to a significant length and have been sporting a longish slicked up pompadour. I'm enjoying it and think I'll keep it for a while. However, I have been "toying" with getting a shorter haircut. I've been a couple of times to a very traditional barber shop ('50's vintage) with a very old barber...barber school in 1954. He's not bad. When I was there a while back, there was a 40ish year old man in front of me getting his hair cut in an all over buzz--maybe a #4. He was good looking and his haircut was nice. I complimented it. After my haircut, I told the barber that I like that other man's cut so much that I thought I'd like to get one--maybe the next visit. He said, "You never know how it will look until you try it." Next visit: about a week ago, I went in for a visit. Nobody there but me. The barber moves kinda slowly and as he was caping me, we chatted. I thought he was about to ask me about the kind of haircut I wanted, so I gave him the vague instructions of, "Just don't leave the skin showing." No more. He asked no questions and turned on his clippers with my not knowing what he was going to do. He trimmed up my pompadour around the edges and nothing more. When he finished, I said, "Hey, I thought you were going to give me one of those great crewcuts." He apologized and said he forgot and that he still could do it. I excused myself and told him I had to leave for an appointment. He said, "Next time."
Now, the game: I think the next time I go in, I'm going to take along a page out of a magazine. I plan to find a picture of someone who has a haircut like Edward Burns (whose hair is very much like mine, though flatter) and on the other side a picture of someone with a crewcut (burr/buzzcut). I'm going to hand the page, maybe folded a couple of times, to the barber when I get in the chair and say, "This is the way I'd like my hair cut." And then maybe I'll change the topic of coversation to the hot weather we are having.
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