Barbers
I believe that it is best to change barbers every two years. They start to take you for granted.
In 2001, I started going to this barbershop on the east side. Three folks worked there: an older white guy, an older white lady, and a Mexican dude. The two guys gave me pretty good haircuts, but somehow or other I ended up getting stuck with the Mexican barber every time I went in for a cut.
I ended up getting stuck with him as my personal barber at this joint. It wasn’t some strange thing: the place was packed pretty much every visit. The two guy barbers cut hair well, the lady not so well. Every time I went in, the old white guy would have five clients ahead of me waiting for a cut exclusively from him. Since they Mexican dude cut my hair well, I ended up getting it cut by him. After a few months, I ended up getting it cut by this same barber just about every time for two years.
Anyway, when you find a good barber, you tend to stick with them. In 2003, I went in for a cut. The Mexican dude was acting kind of spacey and hurried, like he was falling asleep and wanted to get off of work. I sat in the chair. He took a few snips, and jokingly said, “All done.” I knew something was fishy. He was in a hurry throughout the cut, talking to some other joker sitting on a chair in front of us. He made (or received) a phone call. He finished the hair cut in about half the time as usual.
I go out to my car and drive away. I look in the rearview mirror – a shitty haircut. I was pissed. I called the barbershop and complained to this barber. He was offended and baffled, but offered to re-cut it if I cam back in. No thanks. I didn’t trust the guy. So, I never went back.
After that, I went to various places around town for a few months. One lady barber on White Lane burned my neck with the clippers twice during one visit. Two horizontal burn lines very noticeable on the nape of my neck that I had for months. She was so crappy that I went back a week later to confront her and she had already been fired/quit.
I went to a bunch of thug barbers across the street from that place on the recommendation of my dad. They were big Mexican dudes with tats all over their arms. Good barbers, but unpredictable hours. A few times, the OPEN sign was up, and my visit fell within the business hours, but the place was locked up and closed. It wasn’t a lunchtime thing either – this was at 3 in the afternoon. I started looking for a new shop to utilize.
Eventually, I settled into this place on the east side. The two barbers were boyfriend and girlfriend. They both gave excellent haircuts. They had a kid during this time. As a customer, all was cool for two years. Then, they broke up. One day I showed up for a haircut, and I heard the news. I have no idea where she went because barbers aren’t going to give away their customers. Then the next visit the guy barber tells me that he has raised prices – by three bucks! Ouch!
Still, a few weeks later I stopped by for a cut and the place was closed during regular business hours. Usually when this happens, there is a sign in the window saying when the estimated time of return is. Not this time. That must’ve been the idea of the now departed girlfriend barber as the place was closed with no reason given. I went to another barbershop that day.
It sucks changing barbers. Go to one shop for a while and they know what you want. No tedious explanations. Go to a new place, and sometimes they are baffled beyond belief. They become timid, hardly cutting anything off so that, by the time two or three weeks have passed, you look like Wolverine.
I think I’ll change barbers. Two years have passed and $14 is a lot for a simple haircut. Hell, I’m not getting it frosted or styled.
April 30th, 2006 at 20:59
[…] I’ve been going to this new barber that isn’t raising his rates through the roof or having some type of issue in his personal life. The new barbershop, however, is pretty bare bones. A couple of TVs and a bunch of real estate booklets. Last time I went I saw a FHM or two by the door, but it was as I was leaving. […]
June 23rd, 2007 at 6:59
[…] I had a whole weekend off about a month ago so my girlfriend spent it over at my place. I was sick and not able to do much. Sunday rolled around and I had to take her home. We put it off until about 10:30 at night, but she did have to get back because she had to work the next morning. I was sad because it felt like the whole weekend had been pissed away. I told her how I have never liked Sundays. She said it’s because Sundays are for goodbyes. She is right. Almost nothing good comes of Sunday, God forgive me. As a child, my parents were divorced. Sunday meant leaving the fun weekend spent with one parent to return to the boring monotony of life with the other. It also meant a return to school. Vacations always end on Sundays, whether work or school. I have no fond memories of the last day of any Summer Vacation as a child, and they always fall on Sundays. Even as an adult, vacations always end on the same day of the week because most people work the conventional Monday-Friday job. Both Labor Day and Memorial Day are on Sundays. Mother’s and Father’s Days are on Sundays. Explosive fun and then back to the grind. Ugh. As an adult myself, I can’t think of how many times during college where I was sitting at my computer writing a paper all day on a Sunday. Sure, to some Sunday equals football. To me, it just reminds me that baseball season is over and that depresses me even more. TV sucks on Sundays. Megachurch telecasts all morning, and then pure shit TV at night. Al has a couple of old David Letterman clips from the 1980’s. As a kid, I lived for Johnny Carson and David Letterman when I stayed up late during vacations. There was no TiVo, or DVDs, or Internet to past the time, only a handful of television channels. Back then, on Sunday nights, there was sometimes literally nothing on a channel besides a test pattern. You’d be lucky if news played all night, especially if you didn’t have cable. Back then, before Fox or even when Fox was new, all the Big Three stations would play some crappy Movie of the Week from 9-11PM on Sundays. While we do have many more choices nowadays, Sunday night TV still goes to shit after the 11 o’ clock news. Sports bloopers and infomercials. Actually, that’s about how it was when I was a kid. I remember when I had Sundays and Mondays off while in the army in Germany. It meant that I couldn’t get a haircut on either of my days off. Barbershops are closed Sundays. […]