New Town - New Me by DaveP

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I remember pulling up to our new house on that cool Oct. day it was a Monday and my birthday i was turning 17 , my parents had always wanted to live in a small town , myself i like the city plus of course all my friends were there. Now a new place new people , we were starting all over again.

The town was Rockford IN. population 300 (if that) my name is Eric Ford and this is my story of my first week in town , looking at the town i most say it's pretty nice the people super friendly , the kids my age pretty cool , i really haven't talked to any one person that much but in the whole i'm not THAT unhappy , what i have been noticing is almost all the guys my age have really really short hair , i'm talking crewcuts , burr , a few flattops , and really severe taper cuts , then there's me shaggy bed-head guy i'm not going to fit in here.

Now i wasn't starting school till the following week , but i started to think that it might be a good ideal if i got a haircut so i would fit in better , you know look more like the local guys , i didn't really wanted to show up at school looking like the weird city kid. So Fri. morning i got up early showered , and just let my hair dry combed it and head to town to the only place there was to get a haircut Max's Barber Shop , i had scoped it out earlier in the week , Max was i guess 50+yrs. old with a very short flattop if you could call it that , the back and sides looked to be shaved to the skin and the top even looked shaved down , there was a very short (but flat) U shape on the top , like a house-shoe , i'd never seen anything like it before , but on him it look pretty tough. I found out from our neighbor that Max was a former Marine , that really explained the haircut to me.

I opened the door to the shop which had just opened , i was the first customer , Max smiles and said hello as i got in the chair , i smiled back and said hello in return , Max put the tissue around my neck then the cape which was blue pinstripe , I'm guess your Frank Fords boy ? Yes sir i am , i'm Eric. Max pumped the chair up just a little , I meet your dad earlier this week at the Coffee Shop just down the street from me , pretty nice guy. I smiled "He's pretty cool" . Max started combing my hair , So young man what are we going to do today , light trim ? clean it up a little. I was not going to back out of this not now , i wanted to fit in better , plus it was just hair it would grow back if i didn't like the cut. Well sir i was really wanting it cut like the guys around town that are my age , i've noticed that the boys around here wear there hair shorter then i do , could you suggest a cut or tell me what i should try ?

Max looked pretty happy that i was asking for his opinion , well is there any cut you've seen around town that you've really liked ? I'm still not sure why i say it but i looked up at Max and said , truthfully i think you have a tough looking cut , except the top may be a little shorter then i like , Max smiled ear to ear , how about that a kid your age thinking i have a cool haircut. I laughed a little , it really is a tough haircut , so would it look good on me ? Well Eric it may take a little while it really get use to , but i think it would look very sharp on you , so is that what were going to do ? he grabbed my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. I took a deep breath and yes , lets do it.

Max picked up a pair of clippers the biggest black pair of clippers i'd ever seen in my life , clippers haven't touched my head since i was 10 and seeing them got my heart beating fast , scared , excited i was feeling both at the same time. He put the clippers at the base of my neck and i grabbed hold of the arms of the chair , and the clippers started up the back of my head , Max got a very firm grip of my head with his free hand pushing my head down and the clippers started there next trip up my head , next he worked on my left side holding my ear down he worked till there was no hair left the cut , and the sound of the clippers were amazing , i think i was actually smiling at this point , next the right side the clippers roared and now there was what looked like a ton of hair half in my lap half on the floor. Max turned the clippers off and started cutting the top of my hair with scissors more hair landed in my lap , next he applied some kind of gel that made my hair stand straight-up , then Max appeared with a different pair of clippers smaller then the first , he stepped in front of me and took ahold of my face and told me not to move , he then started leveling off the top of my hair , he worked for what felt like an hour (which i know it wasn't) as he was finishing up i remember feeling the clippers touching the top of my head , i was hoping he wasn't skinning the top like his since i told him i wanted mine a little longer , but if he was what the heck !!! i was really getting into this haircut , he finished the top and started blending the sides with the top and after he was satisfied with his work he brushed off the back of my head the sides and the cape , WOW !!!!! i was done and i was so pumped to see the new me.

But Max wasn't done just yet , next thing i know he was applying shaving cream up the back of my head on both sides and he started sharping a straight-razor , he put a wet cloth on my shoulder and then started scraping off the stubble from all around my head. I thought the clippers felt wild having a razor shave parts of your head was down right crazy feeling , i really didn't want him to stop , he wiped off the shaving cream that was left with the wet cloth , then took the clippers and worked on the flattop a little more , he turned the clippers off , Well Eric if you want me to i could give you a little shaved landing strip if you want , it won't be as wide as mine but like a said it's all up to you ? I think i said "Yes do it" before he finished the sentence. Max grinned ,"That a boy" , he then put the shaving cream on the crown of my head and with a very steady hand razor shaved the top , putting the perfect landing strip on top. He then wiped my down again , touched up a few spots then he took the cape off the tissue around my neck , gave my shoulders a very big squeeze , O.K young man ready to see the new you , Yes Sir !!!!! i am , he turned the chair around to the mirror and i could not believe my eyes it was amazing i really looked 100% better , i couldn't thank Max enough for the great job he did , i headed him a twenty dollar bill and told him to keep the change , he thanked my and then told me if i wanted to keep this style of haircut to come back in about a week an a half and he'd keep it cleaned up for me for just $6.00 , what a deal !!!! i told him i'd see him then. I walked out of Max's Barber Shop looking and feeling like a real man.

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