First-time Flattop - Part 3 by Tate

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My coworkers couldn't believe I had gotten a flattop. What made you do it they asked? I told them I liked the way they looked in my dad's old yearbooks and wanted to give it a try. Are you going to keep it they asked? Yes, I said. And that was that.

Or so I thought.

I awakened on Saturday morning and admired my flattop in the mirror. I really didn't get much bedhead like my old style.

I still thought the top looked a little out of proportion, but otherwise I liked the cut a lot.

After I ran some errands in town, I thought I would stop back at my barbershop and have Kevin lower the top a little. But the barbershop was closed.

There was another shop around the corner that I had never been to. I wondered if it was open. Getting the top shortened would not be a big deal, I thought, but would make the cut look right. I was ready to do it.

I rounded the corner and saw the barber pole spinning. I was in luck.

I entered the shop. It was much smaller than my regular shop. Just two barber chairs and almost no waiting area. One barber was cutting a young boys hair while his father waited. The other barber was not cutting hair and said he would be right with me.

Though it is small, the shop is clean and well organized. Blue barbicide jars of combs on the counter. A large selection of clippers hanging at each barber station, including large black military clippers. A gum ball and Coke machine. A sales display of round plastic pocket combs, about half empty. A rack of all types of men's magazines. There is a mirror above each counter and a long one on the opposite wall, only about four feet away. Each barber has a white sink that is notched for hair washing while in the barber chair. The barbershop has a wonderful smell of talcum and colognes that reminded me of my grandfather.

The child's short back and sides haircut is finished and styled with hair cream in a crisp side part. The father pays the barber at a large ole timey cash register that rings when opened. The other barber helps the boy get a sucker from a large jar on the counter.

I sit in the red vinyl waiting chair studying the cinder block walls. The price list includes two prices for flattops: a flattop and a first-time flattop. The first-time flattop costs $8, or $2 more. The list also includes prices for a crew cut, a butch and a regular contour.

The barber who had been cutting hair looks at me and then says to the other barber that it looks like the last cut of the day is going to be a flattop for you. "I'm going to go on," he says as he flips over the Open sign and turns off the barber pole before exiting out of the back.

"Alright, young man," says the only remaining barber to me. He removes his red and white striped cape from the arm of the black barber chair and uses it to beat the seat clean. I stand up and approach the chair.

In the short distance to the chair, it crosses my mind that my hair is as short as it has ever been, and I was about to get back in the barber chair in less than a week. But I know I want the top taken down closer. I'm ready.

To be continued...

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