Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Haircuts

The Haircut, Aaron Bohrod, 1936
~~~
When my boys were little, I invested in some electric clippers and
became fairly good at giving them haircuts. I even mastered a great
bowl cut...remember those? Now, they're grown and it's been a while
since I've played the role of barber. My oldest son loves to go to a chic
place up the street, called Modern Male, where they give a wonderful
head massage along with the shampoo and sell tiny pots of special
hair goo, equaling the price of the entire haircut. He tells me that the
girl who cuts his hair always gives him an extra long massage and
writes her cell phone number on her card for him as he leaves. I can
see why. He is pretty cute. WT has his favorite hair place and one
particular girl always gives him a great haircut. I've never seen her,
but he tells me that she has quite a few body piercings and odd
colored hair. That's fine, as long as she's not giving him her cell
number. I've never been able to give WT a descent haircut because
he has a massive mane of wavy hair that grows straight up, like a
shrubbery. Every once in a while, he'll be extra busy or traveling and
miss his regular trim. That's when I have to gently remind him that
he closely resembles Marge Simpson and it's time to get out the
hedge clippers. I could create some lovely topiary art.

Why don't you get a haircut? You look like a chrysanthemum.

P. G. Wodehouse

36 comments:

  1. My hairdresser has told me NeVeR to trim my own bangs. Apparently, I have no talent for that. Also, I've attempted on several occasions to trim Edward's fur over his eyes. His groomer has said the same thing. NEVER do this. Both "groomers", Edward's and mine, will trim our bangs for free, so obviously they really do not want me doing it.

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  2. I love the images you've chosen for your post.

    My Boy (he's 42) has been going to his same barber since he was an undergrad at Stanford. He still drives down from San Francisco to see this guy, and no one else can touch his hair.

    Why? This man is a WWII vet, a Navy guy who was in the South Pacific, and fills my boy's head with his salty, exciting and sad tales. I would love to come to the barber shop to meet him someday, as he's quite old, but I've been told that Girls Are Not Allowed.

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  3. Don't you love those old fashioned barber shops, the ones with the stiped poles? Where the guys hang out and swap tales? Like Floyd's place on Andy Griffith.

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  4. Oh yes! Like this one:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tangobaby2/2582700223/in/set-72157604398288111/

    and this one:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tangobaby2/2655109670/in/set-72157605022620011/

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  5. Exactly! Yes! Tony's place and those great vintage barber chairs!

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  6. !!!

    ;-)

    Exactly. But if we walked in, they'd clam up. These are boy's clubs.

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  7. Loved this post, Willow! I can recall once my dad attempted to give my mother a bowl cut - with quite hideous results. I don't think she ever really forgave him for that. I never let him near mine, but I did once give myself a haircut while in university. I had seen something in a SEVENTEEN magazine about tying ones hair up in an elastic and cutting at the base of the band. I have always been rather daring and a bit of a risk-taker, so I thought "What the heck, I'll try it." Well - when wet, I looked like a drowned terrier and dry, like an afghan hound! It took copious amounts of gel, hairspray and very distracting clothing to pull the whole thing off, but I did.

    Kat

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  8. Kat, oh, that's a hilarious story about your dad and mother! And too funny about your doggie do!! Fortunately, hair does grow.

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  9. For eons I cut Husband's hair... and each and every time I swore NEVER AGAIN .. til the next time. In over 35 yrs that we know one another he has had ONE haircut at a 'salon' ... and it was a buzz cut right before we went to a Black Tie party much to my dismay .. since then I have given him buzz cuts - much less hassle ...

    But my dad had hair like WT and Art Garfunkle/Albert Einstein and always got awful cuts that Mom would say looked like he joined the German Army ...

    I not so long ago cut my own bangs and when my hair dresser saw what I did she told me: You will never work here.

    Bangs have since grown out.

    What a great post, Willow, I apologize for such a lengthy comment but I couldnt help it!

    :-Daryl

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  10. Daryl, I absolutely love your fun, fun stories. The longer, the better! :D

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  11. LOL--I can just picture that now. I'm envisioning sort of a "Kramer" 'do in my mind. Wavy sounds nice, though! I actually do cut Joe's--he asks me to, foolish man that he is!--but he does the whole buzzcut thing now--I wish I could do that for me!! So easy. The first time I ever cut his, though, I didn't realize you have to put on the attachment to make it not completely shaved to the scalp and I started up the back of his head and went "uh oh!!" I was a nervous wreck. That's the last time I ever did THAT, thankfully!!

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  12. ps
    Willow, I'll have to remember the Wodehouse quotation--that's classic!

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  13. What a great post, willow. I always cut my children's hair and my various husbands. I still cut Jim's hair, which is pretty wild and curly, what is left of it.

    My Dad's hair was exactly like WT's. Very curly (that's where I get my mane from) and it, too, grew straight up. He was of Jewish descent. He once grew a 'spade' shaped beard, but my mother threatened to leave him unless he shaved it off! He did.

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  14. I enjoy the old photos and the haircut post too.

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  15. This made me smile. We've had our share of haircut woes at our house... me butchering Boo's locks for the sake of a cheap haircut... Tukes SCARED TO DEATH of the barber. Just tonight I was telling him that we need to go for a haircut, "No!" he says. Maybe you or Betsy should do it; I know he would like y'all.

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  16. There is a hair cut place in town where they give you a neck rub, and, while cutting your hair, you get a beer and you get to control the TV remote. Sounds like a fun place to go....but my wife cuts my hair...come to think of it, she gives me a neck rub, wine, control the remote...........

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  17. What would we do without mothers to tell us we need haircut. Mine used to say "Dear, you're looking a little ragged around the edges" which is considerably better than my husband's "Uh..Love, you look like you've been pulled through a bush backwards".

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  18. Willow, both of our firstborns looked adorable in their bowl cuts! They reminded me so much of each other at that age!

    I went to the barber with my husband for his first haircut after we were married. I carefully watched so I could try doing it myself (we were terribly poor and I really wanted to learn just to save money!) I must not have done too badly because a few years later, the university president's wife asked him where he got his hair cut so she could send her husband! He never called me though....maybe it would have been too awkward? Funny memory, anyway.

    And ~ Willow used to cut my hair when I was young...and she did a pretty good job! :) The perm she gave me when I was 12 years old is another story, but that really wasn't her fault. Perms have come a long way since the 70's! :)

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  19. It really wasn't my fault. Darn. I wish I had a picture to post! ;)

    I like the time you called me and said, "Help! I'm Lucille Ball! I accidentally dyed my hair red!"

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  20. Willow..this is a great fun post...My husband was given a gift certificate recently for one of those fancy hair salons with the neck massage routine...It was so funny to hear him talk of the stylist that cut his hair...she told him she was not at her best for she was in a lot of pain having just had a "tummy tuck"...we all had such a good laugh hearing him tell the story.....

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  21. Your description of WT's unruly hair reminds me of my youngest son. His hair is curly and if left alone to grow out becomes stiff and frizzy. He can rub it straight up and it just stands there. One day I might post an old pic of him that way. His sister and I always laugh hysterically when he does it.

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  22. Only Wodehouse would say that!

    Mark's dad was a barber. When we moved to the desert, Mark actually had to go to someone other than his father for a haircut! But the cuts were so hideous I finally bought some clippers and now do it myself.

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  23. I met my husband due to him calling at my salon for a crafty coffee whilst on duty.
    Up to the last two and half years, him my son and many members of my family had never paid for a haircut. They all had a shock when they had to hand over hard cash (and plenty of it), to pay for their trendy Barnett's......

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  24. I have to admit I used to go to a barber when I was in college because my other choice was to go to a hair salon and all the hairdressers were gay men who were not satisfied with just cutting my hair but suggested color, and funky 'dos. I remember the bowl cut phase. I think that is around pre-school and kindergarted era, even to this day.

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  25. I don’t advise a haircut, man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. Hairs are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos, and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight.
    (Bruce Robinson, Withnail & I)

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  26. Queenie, I didn't realize you had a salon! And that's where you met Math? intriguing.

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  27. RAD, WT is in total agreement with Bruce on this matter.

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  28. Brush, like Kramer's only more dense and curly!

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  29. Our son loves the old barber shop in town..They give him such a great cut and happily chat with him about cars which is is favorite topic of conversation...The last time I cut my bangs was a disaster and I vowed to never do that again...Of course, now I'm ready for long hair again after just getting a shorter bob which I liked at first but now really don't care for( Too short for me!)...Boy am I fickle!

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  30. Rebecca, your shorter bob does look terrific with your hats!

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  31. The last hair cut I had was from a pierced Goth in Lanzarote. The temperature was in the 90s and my bouffant was making me sweat so it had to go. Thankfully, despite the fact that she spoke little English and I have a smattering of Spanish, we managed to work out what I needed. However, she then surprised me by trimming my beard and eyebrows. Maybe it's a Spanish thing. I don't know. All I know is that she charged me next to nothing and that she had a great collection of Spanish ska. I'd go again but the air fare would make the cost prohibitive. x

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  32. I can't believe I forgot to tell you how much I love, Wodehouse - and especially Fry and Laurie's Jeeves and Wooster. Have all of them on dvd. Hilarious!

    Kat

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  33. Kat, I love Stephen Fry and actually can't believe I haven't seen any of these! Going to my Netflix queue...

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  34. When I was a kid/teen my mother used to drag me to this London hair salon called, of all things, "Tatty Heads!" Not only that but the owner and hairdresser was very flamboyant and very into me! I hated going there! i think it gave me an aversion to having my hair cut. Now I leave it longer and cut it myself-- a luxury I can get away as I have a curly mop anyway.

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  35. Have just discovered your blog - fantastic! I'll definitely return. Unless you start picking on people with bowl haircuts of course - I'm proud of mine...

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Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)