Haircut after lockdown by Tony

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Haircut after lockdown
I had taken early retirement and sold my barber shop when I was forty nine, I no longer needed to work, I sold my house and bought a flat overlooking the sea, the only thing I missed a little was the garden, so I used to sit in the local park, the gardens were beautiful and it was always quiet, I had a bench that I used to sit on and take a book to read in the sunshine, I was sitting there reading when I noticed a young guy sit at the other end of the bench, he was reading too. My phone rang and it was a friend of mine who asked if I could cut his hair for him, I arranged a day the following week and hung up, the young guy asked me if I was a barber, he said sorry, but he couldn't help over hearing me arranging to cut someone's hair, I said yes I am and that was ok, it wasn't a secret about me being a barber.
He told me that during the lockdown he had not been able to get his haircut, he said his Mother was a manager at a local care home and when the barber was coming there, she usually took me to get a haircut too, but since all the lockdown and problems, he wasn't allowed to go.
He asked how much I charged as he used to get it free and his Mother didn't have huge amounts of money for him to go to a barber shop, I said, if he wanted me to do it, I would not charge him, but he would need to get his Mothers permission, I asked him his age, he said seventeen, so I said in that case it's up to you.
He asked me when I could do it for him, I said anytime he wanted, it didn't matter to me, so he suggested today if that was possible, I said it was, I asked what he wanted, he told me the barber usually just gave him a short cut, he wasn't too fussed about the style, he had quite nice hair, straight, fairly thick and a dark brown colour, it had obviously grown through lockdown and at the moment it was covering his ears and the back well over the collar, but more important was his long fringe, which seemed to cover most of his face, he kept flicking his head to try to get it out of his eyes, I said to him, if you want we can go up to my flat and I will cut it now, he agreed but first checked I was happy to do it for nothing.
I asked if he fancied going really short like a buzz cut, he said if that's what you think is ok for me, then why not, I said, firstly, do you need to check with your Mother, I don't want an irate lady coming round telling me off, he laughed, and said, it's ok, I will decide.
We got up to my flat and I took him into the kitchen, I pulled a chair out and sat him down, I caped him up ready, I started by combing through his hair, I asked if he just wanted a short haircut or did he want to go right down to a buzz cut, I said your fringe is so long, it covers your face, if I get the clippers and do a short buzz cut it will eliminate that for you totally, plus the rest is very long too, it's up to you? He thought for a minute and said, do you think a buzz will suit me, I said yes, but if your not sure, I can cut it down gradually, it just takes longer, he thought again for a minute and said, let's do a buzz cut.
I lifted his hair on the top and it was at least six inches long, I put a grade three guard on the clippers and switched them on, I lifted the hair at the front of his forehead with my comb and slowly plunged the clippers through the top of his head, the long hair slowly slipped down the cape onto the floor, the second wave of hair was now on its way to the floor and I could see how good he was going to look, being as his hair was so thick, his scalp did not show through too bad, I said to Justin, it's looking really good so far, he raised his fingers to feel the new shaved head, he said to me, hey that feels kinda weird, it's the first time I have done this, I asked if he was nervous, he said, a little, but I am sure it will look ok.
I carried on plowing through with the clippers, working up the sides now and the back of the neck, the majority was done now and I used detail clippers to line around the ears, the sideburns were just beginning to form on the side of his face, so I lined them off at the top of the ear to make it look better, then lined down on the neck. There was a huge pile of hair on the kitchen floor now, I passed him a mirror to inspect the new buzz, he looked a little shocked, but said he liked it, I told him any time he wanted to cut it, look for me on the bench in the park. He looked awesome, he was just one of those guys with the perfect hair and shape head for a buzz cut, he just kept running his hands over the top of his head, with a huge smile on his face.

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