Do you like or dread getting your hair cut?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
26 Comments
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Dread because it costs like $15-20 with tip. But I like my haircut lady. She’s a Vietnamese woman who doesn’t speak English very well, but she’s quick, efficient, does a good job, and puts a hot towel on your head/face when she’s done.
my favorite barbers have all been born in Italy. They still use the straight-edge razor and hot shaving cream.
Do you go to one now? Is it on Route 113 in a strip mall? 😉
no, I’d have to go down to Passyunk Ave. to see my old guy. Or to Hamilton, New Jersey for the guy I had before that.
Oh, because there is an alright one not too far from where you live. And it’s run by an old Italian family. Ha! Hamilton, NJ, is awfully far to go for a haircut though. But it’s not always Italians. Greeks are pretty good too. My Gramps(RIP), who lived in one of the five boroughs, went to a Greek guy for years and years. The guy would always shut down for 3 weeks in the summer to go back to the old country.
Yep. They ALWAYS go home in the summer. And then come back with good stories.
The guy on Passyunk is hilarious, and his joint is always filled with Wise Guys talking about viagra and watching Jerry Springer.
Here’s a Turkish barber’s method of hair removal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B59Sg_KKYmk
Reminds me of the barbershop my dad used to take me to somewhere around Hempstead, LI.
After we moved to Indiana when I was 6 yo, we went to a one person shop where there was a photo of a huge Bass being pulled from a pond by a guy on a tractor – a 1950s version of a Photoshop job. It was extreme culture shock for me, even at that tender age. Now that I think about it, I still miss the NYC area environs for more than one reason, even after all these years.
I lost my hair over 50 years ago. At age 72 (tomorrow), I let it go until Mrs Chief gets tired of it and she cuts it all off by buzzing my head.
That sounds like my going without shaving (absolutely no comments at work) until Mrs. Voice says, “You can shave or sleep somewhere else tonight.”
She sounds like Mrs. Chief.
like. I’ve been going to the same haircutter for over 15 years, even though she’s expensive. We know each other pretty well by now. And my ever-diminishing hair looks good.
I love getting my haircut, but that’s because I cultivate a rockabilly pompadour.
A hair cut is $15. A haircut/straight razor shave/neck massage is only $30.00
Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra on the stereo.
Love it.
Oh, shit, I forgot about this. That’s from like two months into blogging here.
Like. I go to a local beauty school,get it cut every three months and tell them so. It works out perfect for me.
Back in Canada I used to like getting a razor cut and a hot towel on the face at the local barber shop. But there are no places like that here in my neighborhood in S.D. — just hair ‘salons’. I cut my own hair now. Not hard since there isn’t much.
As a kid I despised haircuts. My parents dumped me in a right-wing Christian “academy” set up specifically to avoid desegregation (this was South Carolina in 1969), and I got suspended numerous times because my hair touched my ears. To me it was a perfect example of the mindless authoritarianism that was the only real purpose of their “teaching.” As soon as I left home (age 15) I grew my hair very, very long, just because I could.
My attitudes about authority haven’t changed much, but I’ve mellowed on haircuts; it’s just another errand now. The place I go, the “hair stylists” are all local musicians who need day jobs to get by, and so we hang out and tell stories over the very loud music. Seattle has a lot of underemployed musicians…
I don’t mind getting my hair cut. My barber is an old Italian-American guy named Tony. He charges $10 and I add a $2 tip. He does a good job.
A shave with a straight razor used to be $10; now it’s $15. Tony doesn’t do it but the guy who owns the shop does. I prefer to shave for myself, but I use either a straight razor or an old fashioned safety razor. Something like this:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/collector.kettunen/Razors/Gillette%20Aristocrat.jpg
I go to an older Italian-American woman a bit younger than me but still a Grandma. She charges $13 and I give her a $3 tip. On Senior day, the haircut is only $10, so I give her a $6 tip. It pleases her a lot and the haircut is worth $16 to me.
Do I enjoy it? Sometimes. But it always beats shaving. When you are a teenager you can’t wait for the face hair to grow. When you start drawing SS, you wish you could get your face permanently depilated. At least I do. A friend of the same age says he enjoys shaving in the morning because it proves to him that he is still alive.
I dread it. OCD issues.
I used to hate it. I’ve liked it for quite a while because a friend comes over and does it in my kitchen and charges only $10. She has done that for 15-20 years now. Geez has it really been that long?
And I usually put it off until it is bothering me so the cut provides some relief.
I love the actual haircut – have been going to a guy my wife discovered who does fantastic work – but for some reason have to force myself to make the appointments and actually go there. It’s weird.
Like! I splurge and get it done at an Aveda place that always smells wonderful. Hairdresser is a gay guy who does a great job and is fun to talk to. Haircut comes with a scalp massage. It’s great.
I love getting my hair done. At my age, it’s quite a process. I try to go four times a year, and I have color, highlights, cut, and blow dry/style done at a great little place downtown in an historic district. The salon is run by a husband and wife in their mid-thirties and they’re Obama fans, so it’s fun to talk with them. I’ve gone there for four years and they’re friends now.
I have never had good luck at coloring my own hair, and I’m wise enough to know my limitations. It’s worth it to me for the attention, good results, and the luxury of having someone shampoo my hair.
I love it. You can go anywhere in the country, sit down in the chair and go ‘I’ll take a #2’ and they know exactly what you want. But I absolutely HATE barbers that chat. More than once I have said ‘bigger tip if you don’t talk.’
.
One word forever solved my haircut anxiety. “Flowbee”
Seriously. This has been one of the single best products I’ve ever purchased. Getting a haircut was always an ordeal of epic proportions for me. I would always walk out of the place looking like an insane person. I don’t think I ever got a normal looking haircut.
Then one night in 1990 after seeing this bizarre thing called a “Flowbee” on an infomercial every night, I figured even if it’s as bad as the haircuts I’m currently getting at least I won’t have to leave my house and pay to look like a moron in public every couple of weeks.
I have not usd anything else to cut may hair in over 23 years. Comes out perfect every time. Just set it to the length you want and you can’t go wrong. A product that is always mocked, yet to me has been one of the most profound innovations since the dawn of technology. Just thinking of having to back to purchasing haircuts and the public humiliation of the end result gives me the shakes.