KOJAK, Part 2. by vykonavatel77

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This is a continuation of the story KOJAK, Part 1. My name is Michael. In 1975, I was 14 years old and had never been to an old-fashioned barber shop before. Since I was excited to see the freshly cut heads of boys with partially shaved backs and sides of their heads, I agreed to go to the old-fashioned barber shop at Hobson's Barber Shop during the holidays, where my father and younger brother, my very good friend Thomas, went with me. I was horrified when we were cut according to the model from the crime series Inspector Kojak.
The holidays were ending in 1975, my hair had grown about 1 inch. My father came home from work and told me that he had asked Thomas' father to go with them to Hobson's Barber Shop for a decent and exemplary haircut before the school year started. I was shocked, I didn't expect that. I went to protest, but my father said Why do you have such a mop on your head and not a decent boy's haircut? To my protest that it was an unfashionable haircut for boys my age, my father replied It's good for Thomas, it will be good for you too and we won't discuss it any more. If you don't like it, you will go to Hobson's barbershop every Saturday for a Kojak haircut. Tears welled up in my eyes but I was ashamed to cry in front of my father.
We were playing at Thomas's. His father came home from work and said Michael, it's good that you're here, because now we're all going to Hobson's barbershop. My throat was dry and I couldn't say a single word. Thomas suggested that we draw lots to see who would be first in the barbershop chair and who would be second and who would be last. I was the first to be drawn.
After arriving at the barbershop, we sat down on the waiting chairs. There was an older man in the barber's chair, and 3 other older men and a boy about 7 years old with his mother in waiting chairs. I watched the boy's haircut carefully, because in a moment I would be getting a similar haircut. The back of his head was shaved about halfway from the neck up, and the other half had gradually growing stubble. It was a haircut that excited me in others, but I wasn't sure if this haircut would be good for me.
While I was wrapped in a sheet, the barber asked Thomas' father how we were cutting boys' hair today. He replied, a boys' haircut for the start of the school year.
The barber tilted my head forward and started cutting the hair on the back of my head. Then he cut the hair around my ears, and I noticed a very short stubble above my ear. Before the barber put the clippers down, Thomas' father said, "Lift it up at least 1 inch." I felt like I had a big rock in my stomach. The barber tilted my head forward again and I felt the scissors cutting my head much higher. The arches around my ears also grew larger. In the mirror I saw Thomas biting his lip nervously. The barber started cutting the hair on the top of my head. When he finished, my hair on the top of my head was only 14 inch long. Then the barber reached my bangs. I could see my entire forehead. The barber applied white foam to my sides and nape, which he gradually scraped off the nape and sides of my head. I was very glad to leave his chair.
Thomas' knees gave way as he followed me to sit in the chair. Soon Thomas also had 34 of his back shaved and only 14 was stubble as a transition to the hair on the top of his head. The white arches above his ears were 2 inches long. It was a humiliating haircut and I assumed that this would be the last visit to Hobson's Barber Shop.
The new haircut was humiliating for me, but I enjoyed the teasing of his palms as I stroked the back of my head. When I got home, I expected my father to be angry with my short hair. The haircut that Thomas and Joy and I got today at Hobson's Barbershop was much shorter than Thomas had cut last school year. To my unpleasant surprise, my father said This is exactly the haircut I had in mind when I talked to Thomas' father about it. This is how I was regularly cut when I was young, my father recalled.
For the next few years, Thomas and Joy and I went to Hobson's Barbershop, accompanied by my or Thomas' father. Our hair usually grew 14 inch, maximum 38 inch, and we went to get another haircut. The most humiliating thing was that one of the fathers went with such big boys.

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