John Lennon style by Storyteller

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This story took place when I was a teenager, in the 70's. I discovered that I had to wear glasses and that disappointed me a lot, but when I went to the optician, I liked it, because I asked to make a model of round glasses, in John Lennon style and I was a big fan of him. Also, I had long hair, parted in the middle, just like he had, so I would look very much his style.

When I got my glasses at the optician, downtown, I decided to stop by a barbershop and trim my hair, which was already too long. I saw a small barbershop and decided to walk in.

The barbershop was simple and old-fashioned, a very good and strong aroma of traditional products from old barbershops came from inside. The furniture and equipment were all antique. The barber was a man in his 70s, with traditional clothes and shoes, short white hair, and a neat white mustache.

When I opened the door and saw that the barber was an old man, I tried to be respectful and said, "Good afternoon, Sir, excuse me", he smiled and said, "Welcome, young man" and pointed to his barber chair. I smiled, walked over to the barber chair, and carefully hopped up, settling myself in the seat.

The barber wrapped a long cape around me, making sure my hair didn't get inside it, and put a neckstrip around my neck. He gently combed my hair a bit and asked me, "How do you want it cut, young man?"

I said, "I would like it John Lennon style, do you know him?", although John Lennon is a very famous person, I wanted to make sure that the barber knew him. And he said, "Oh yeah, I understand that with your glasses you want his style" and I smiled.

He then swiveled the chair away from the mirror and lifted it a little with the pedal. He began to prepare the equipment to start the cut, while saying, "To tell you the truth, son, I didn't know John Lennon, I had only heard of him, but, what a coincidence, today I saw a picture of him in the newspaper"

He gave me the newspaper he was reading and said, "Read it while I cut your hair", and immediately turned on his clippers and started running them on the top of my head. I was very surprised and was about to say something when I saw the photo of Lennon with Yoko Ono and the title "John Lennon in the Watergate hearings", in the photo he had very short hair.
I had never seen Lennon with hair like that and I was totally surprised, it wasn't at all what I had imagined.

"His hair is nice" the barber said, as he passed the clippers "now that you have the same kind of glasses you will be fine with the same haircut" and immediately ran his hand on the top of my head, which he had buzzed. I felt his hand touching my hair and realized that it was very short, as I had never had it before, I had never seen or felt clippers on my head before.
As I didn't know that barber and wanted to be respectful, I didn't comment anything and let him go on with the cut and smiled.

He then pushed my head so that my chin rested on my chest. I noticed that he dealt with something on the clippers and he told me, "Look, his cut in the photo is a buzz with the same length all over the head, but it looks more elegant if the sides and back are shorter, so I'll do it like this for you, you'll like it" and began to run clippers from the nape towards the crown.

I felt the blade touching my head and saw the hair falling in front of me.
The barber ran the clippers all over the back in steady motions, from nape to crown, when he got close to my ears he would press them to the side so the clippers would go through well.

He then lightly moved my head at an angle and, positioned himself by my right side, and began to run clippers from sideburns to crown. After a few passes on that side, he went to the other side, changed the angle of my head, and did the same movements with the clippers.

Finally, he straightened my head and turned off the clippers. He took a pair of scissors and made a few small snips around the top of the head to make everything perfect. Then he finished with a razor and a very strong scented shaving cream around the ears and on the nape.

He then dusted my head with a duster brush, shook the cape out of the hair, then put talcum powder on the brush and rubbed it around the ears and nape where he'd shaved.

Then, he turned me to face the mirror and said, "Done son, as you wish". I was amazed to see myself with short hair for the first time in my life, it was very short, it looked like the hair of a military school student. But I held back my surprise and smiled at the barber and said, "Yes, thank you very much Sir".

He removed the cape and motioned me to get down from the chair. I took my wallet, asked how much the cut was and paid. I looked again in the mirror and saw myself, with glasses and extremely short hair.
I thanked the barber again and said, "Goodbye Sir" and he said, "See you next time".
As I was walking down the street, I started to think that people who saw me saw a completely different guy than I was used to, with glasses and very short hair... John Lennon style.

PS: For those who want to check the photo I refer to in the text, google 'John Lennon Watergate'

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