Teach Your Children by Deke Cutter

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Daniel was happy to be back at his favorite team’s stadium for a football match (or soccer game, if you are American). It was a beautiful Autumn day and he planned to enjoy every minute of it since the impending birth of his first child would mean much less time and money for things like tickets to sporting events. As he and his buddy Ryan took their seats, he removed his cap and ran his fingers through his thick brown hair that reached his collar and covered his ears. He was lucky to be 30 and still have a great head of hair. Just then he saw a father with his son who looked to be around 9 years old. The father’s hair was longer than Daniel’s, quite straight and parted to the side. His son’s longer blonde hair looked untamed and flopped around in the breeze. Daniel made a moue, as he looked at the two. He was suddenly transported back to his own childhood when he and his father had identical crew cuts until Daniel was around 11 years old when dad had grown his own hair out and allowed Daniel to make his own hair choices. Daniel was suddenly wondering what kind of role model he would be to his son (he and Veronica knew they were having a boy). As he looked around the section of the stadium where he and Ryan were sitting, it appeared to him that fathers and pre-teen sons seemed to have similar grooming. As they left the stadium, Daniel said to Ryan, "that barber shop near the station is open, I’m going to get this mop taken care of. With the baby almost here, I’m going for a low maintenance short cut."

Ryan whose wavy curly hair that could only be tamed with a round brush and a hair dryer wore his hair combed back on top and full of the sides and back so that he could control the curls and waves. "You’re joking, right. Guys would kill for your thick thatch of easily styled hair. What’s the deal, man?"

"No deal, it’s just impending fatherhood, I think." I’ve seen those guys who come in to work with the hair looking either unwashed or all over the place because they were up with the baby all night. Short and simple, that’s the look for me."

"Well, I’ve gotta see this.

"Hey bruh, maybe it’s time you got rid of that ‘Nancy Walker’ hairdo of yours, joked Daniel to Ryan.

Ryan replied, "Who the heck is Nancy Walker, some masculine looking woman athlete?"

"No, she was some actress from the 70s and 80s. She wore her hair all "back combed" like yours." Daniel didn’t know it, but he was touching on a sensitive area with his best pal. Ryan too desired to find a new simpler haircut, but he had never been "trained," like Daniel and had only ever had long hair. "But if you show me you have ‘co-hos’ to get your haircut today, it will probably push you over Mark and Darren in the godfather sweepstakes."

"Well then, hold my hairdryer, and let’s get this done."

They arrived at ‘Barbers on the Square,’ to find one barber working on a young guy getting a tight taper cut with a bit of a quiff in the front and another barber sitting in the chair closest to the door. "Welcome gents, I’m Mario and this is Zeke. Who is up first?"

Daniel shook Mario’s hand and said, "that would be me." Ryan sat down in one of the waiting chairs, now starting to feel very unsure of his big talk. Daniel took out his phone and scrolled to a picture of his dad with three year old Daniel, both sporting the same crew cut, about a half-inch on top, combed forward with an inch or so at the front that was brushed to the side and then waxed up at the hairline. "Can you recreate this cut?"

Mario smiled widely and said, "oh, sure, but are you ready to lose all that hair?"

"I’m definitely ready. I’m about to become a father and I want to simplify things."

"Alright my man. One classic crew cut coming up." With that, Mario caped Daniel up and went to work with his clippers with a half-inch guard to start things off, going slightly over the crown, as he cleaned off the back. He then attacked the sides, cleaning off the right and the left."

Daniel was giddy, "oh man I feel so much cooler already." At this point Zeke had finished his client and invited a visibly nervous Ryan to his chair. "Be gentle with my son’s future godfather, Zeke, I suspect that this is the first time he’s been in a real barber shop for a real haircut."

"So what do you have in mind, my friend? Same as your buddy?"

Ryan could hardly speak as he watched Mario remove Daniel’s sideburns to slight tabs high up next to each ear and cut his sides and back down to little more that stubble. He then started cutting the top down with scissor and comb, using the half inch at the back as a guide. "No, I don’t think we want to be haircut twins. I want to keep enough to brush the top back but shorten the sides to a more manageable length."

"You leave it to me, sir," Zeke said and turned Ryan’s chair away from the mirrors. Zeke, seeing how nervous Ryan seemed began by combing through Ryan’s hair and gently scissoring of the hair that fell below his hairline. He sprinkled a small amount on to Ryan’s shoulder and let some slip down on to the cape. He did the same with the sides, uncovering about half of his ears. Ryan seemed to be relaxing and was watching carefully as Mario finished cutting Daniel’s fringe/bangs to about an inch and a half at the long side to inch on the shorter side. He then began using thinning scissors to balance the tightly tapered sides to the top.

So engrossed was Ryan in Daniel’s haircut that he did not seem to notice as Zeke started to remove the hair from the back of his head. Zeke only pushed the clipper with a one eighth guard about up to the occipital bone and had done this about three times before Ryan asked, "not too short back there is it?" Zeke simply assured him that everything was looking good. At the same moment, Mario had applied some wax to the front of Daniel’s hair and had combed it so that his hair looked exactly like his father’s had looked in the picture.

Mario turned Daniel’s chair so that he was facing Ryan and asked, "what do you think, Ryan?" At the same time, with Ryan distracted, Zeke ran the clippers up the side of Ryan’s hair , all the way to where a side parting would have been.

Ryan exclaimed "sh*t!"

Mario said, "What? You don’t like my masterpiece?"

"No, I was referring to the scalping Zeke just gave me. Danny’s haircut looks fantastic, Mario."

Zeke continued to shave off most of the hair on the sides of Ryan’s head and then finished the back to the same sandpapery quality. Ryan seemed, at this point to decide to go with the flow, or the removal of the flow. Zeke started paring down the long hair on top of Ryan’s head. He used his scissors to cut off about half the six inches at the front and then proceeded to cut the hair toward to a uniform two inches. He applied a clay product to all the hair on top, leaving Ryan with enough hair at the front to brush back and the remaining hair standing at attention. It was a clean modern look that left the thin, physically-fit Ryan looking like a cross between a military man and a hipster. Zeke turned Ryan to face the mirror and asked simply, "well?"

Daniel was the first to respond. "Am-f**king-mazing! Dude, you look like a whole different man."

Ryan was feeling the sides and back and looking intensely into the mirror. "I-I-I think I love it!"

The two friends left the shop and headed to the station to catch the train. Daniel said to Ryan, "you know you were my only choice for godfather. I’d never have chosen those other two clowns."

Ryan smiled and said, "hey man, I am so happy that you got me into that barber chair that I am fine with your trick."

The next day being Sunday, Daniel’s parents were coming over to visit. His dad had to make sure the crib and stroller were put together to his liking and his mom and Ronnie, as his wife was called, would be looking at all the baby clothes and making sure the nursery was perfect. Both his wife and his parents were rather surprised at Daniel’s crewcut, but all agreed that it suited him well. Daniel and his dad had some time alone and Daniel mentioned to his dad how the shaggy father and son had reminded him of his childhood crewcuts. "I was surprised when you told me that you had decided to grow out your crewcut and I could too, if I wanted."

His father smiled. "You know son, I owe your grandfather for that. My dad grew up during the ‘hippy era,’ and his dad, my grandfather, didn’t let him have long hair until he felt that my dad was mature enough to be in charge of his appearance. ‘Train them when they are young, and they will thank you for it later,’ was my pop-pop’s motto. So, when I came along, dad did the same with me. Of course, the first long hair era was over, and dad had a great head of hair, but he kept us both in crew cut which was still considered pretty conservatively for such a progressive man. By the time I was in middle school, I was crazy for all team sports and wanted my hair as short as possible because it was easier to take care of. When I went away to college, I grew it out to about the length it is now and I liked the way I looked and your mom did too. You came along a bit before we had planned for you, and I was working all the hours the good Lord gave me to be able to get a mortgage and get us out of our apartment as soon as I could. I was looking for ways to save money and time too. I remembered how simple my haircare had been back in high school and I noticed that the prices barbers charged were a lot less than the salons I had been using, so I went back to the crewcut. It was your pop-pop who asked me if I did it to prepare to ‘train my boy right.’ I thought about how well it worked for me, so I went for it. When you were little, you loved getting the same haircut as me and as you got older, it just worked for us. You were a very responsible kid, so I knew you were ready, and your mom really wanted me to grow my hair out."

"Wow dad," Daniel replied, "it is amazing because when I looked at that shaggy father and son, I immediately thought of my son and how I wanted to be a good role model for him and that’s what got me in the barber’s chair yesterday. I showed the barber this picture of us, Daniel said, showing the same picture to his father that he had shown to the barber. So, dad. You think you’d ever get another crewcut?"

"I’ll tell you what son, if you still have this crewcut when Daniel III is three, I’ll join you both at the barbers and get one more crew cut."

"I’ve already turned Ryan into a short hair guy, I’ll be working on Mark and Darren, so hopefully, we’ll fill that barber shop on the day you come to get your crew cut.

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