The Haircut Story Site

"You remind me of my grandson, young man by Storyteller

This happened when I was 14 years old. It was 1980, and after months without visiting a barbershop, my straight brown hair was shoulder length, completely covering my huge ears and forming waves at the point where it touched them, the bangs almost reached the chin.
I was allowed to have long hair if I trimmed it occasionally and kept my hair clean and combed. So, when my mother told me it was time to go to the barber and gave me the money for the cut I immediately obeyed.
However, when I was going to the barbershop, I had the idea that, after so many months without going to the barbershop, it might be weird to meet the same barber again. With that, I decided to look for another place to get my haircut. There was no need to walk a lot and there I was in front of a barbershop I didn't know. Looking from the outside it seemed like a cool place and I decided to go inside.
I opened the door slowly and said, "Excuse me." And then I saw the barber, who had no customers at the moment, and said, "Good afternoon, Sir." The barber, a man who must have been about 70 years old, bald, with a white mustache, wearing formal clothes and a white tunic, said "Good morning, young man" and waved me in. "Feel free".
I smiled and said "Thank you, Sir, I came for a haircut". "Okay, sit down," he said, moving behind the barber's chair and pointing to its seat. I promptly walked over to the chair and sat up straight, with my back well positioned, arms on the armrest and feet well placed on the footrest.
The barber took a striped nylon cape and put it around me, with a neckstrip around my neck, he took care that my hair was not inside the cape. He took a comb from his tunic pocket and began to comb my hair carefully.
"You remind me of my grandson, young man" he said to me smiling. I smiled and said, "Thank you, Sir, you must be a great grandfather." He smiled and said to me "Can I give you the haircut my grandson likes?"
I was prepared to ask him to just trim my hair a little bit, but he said it in such a kind way, and I thought that if his grandson was like me, he should have his hair in the same style, then the barber would not do anything very different. So I said, "Sure, Sir, I think it’s a great idea."
He seemed to be quite pleased with my answer, and started to work with the chair, he hitted the pedal to lift it, and turned it around so that I had my back to the mirror.
He went behind the chair and soon he was holding my head tightly, and he had bare blade clippers in his hand. He put the clippers under my bangs, turned on and started running the clippers over my head, from the forehead to the nape, in a firm and precise movement. I didn't even have time to react, he held my head tightly and ran the clippers mercilessly, one pass after the other, the hair just fell on the back.
He moved my head this way and that, as he wanted, while making his moves with the clippers, and my hair was all falling out. In this way, he also passed the clippers through the right and left sides. I started to feel the air in my ears. He didn't say anything, he didn't even look at me, he just followed his work strictly.
After running the clippers all over my head, he turned them off, put them on a hook on the wall and ran his callused hand all over my head. Wow, what a different feeling.
Then he came with a mug and a shaving brush and started spreading shaving foam all over the back and sides of my head.
Once again, I was surprised and scared but said nothing. He took a razor, held my head, and started shaving off the little hair left in that area. He steadily scraped the back and sides and the sound of the razor on the scalp broke the silence of the barbershop.
At some point, he finished with the razor and, with a towel, removed the excess foam from my head. After that he spread aftershave on the area he had shaved. The aroma was very good.
He turned me around, front to the mirror and said "ready, young man" using a hand mirror to show the back, totally shaved. I gaped, surprised. He didn't care, just said "It looks really good, young man"
I just smiled and said, "Thank you very much, Sir," he dusted my head with a brush, shook the cape and said, "You can leave the chair now." I obediently jumped out of the chair and paid him. I looked at myself again in the mirror, almost not believing in my new look and took the way back home.

Comments
Storyteller, you are very generous with your "beginnings of a story". Why don't you try, for once, to write yourself a sequel ? I am convinced that you have lots of imagination for situations where the "boy" is polite and the barber is kind but obstinate: that should be your starting point for a great sequel.
by thadeusz on 11 Nov 2021
Guys, I would be thankful if you write a sequel to this story.
by Storyteller on 16 Dec 2020
As far as I am concerned, I like this story of another polite boy, like the one you describe in "All because I said 'Sir' ". This one is polite, but not shy and has no problem because of his new haircut. That's great !
by thadeusz on 12 May 2020
Yes, Deke Cutter, this is a pattern in my stories. Nothing like this happened to me, I kept as a longhaired through my childhood and teenage. I just like to imagine how it would have been if I, a polite boy, in fact, would have faced a situation in a barbershop like the ones I decribe. I know most of them end up being not very realistic, but it's only a way to let flow an imaginary situation I, now, wish that could have happened in my past.
by Storyteller on 11 May 2020
I see a pattern developing in your stories, "the polite boy" the old barber giving the cut he wants. Did something like this happen to you?
by Deke Cutter on 11 May 2020
I would have knocked that old barbers dentures out of his mouth. However I agree with George and find it hard to believe it really happened.
by M DeMarlo on 09 May 2020
I find this an interessting story. It´s start is very believable. I wish it was more realistic. I hardly doubt something like this really happened though!
by George on 09 May 2020