Tuesday, April 5, 2011

My Love Hate Relationship with Haircuts

         Today I had to get a haircut so that started me thinking about why I like and dislike haircuts.

         When I was a little boy my Dad cut my hair. He had a hand clipper which he probably bought on an auction sale for twenty-five cents. At their best, hand clippers were not technically advanced devices. A user had to really be coordinated or they would pull and I mean pull. As a little fellow I remember shedding lots of tears when I got a haircut. When I was a little kid twenty-five cents for a haircut was a lot of money so haircuts were done at home. My Dad gave a reasonable haircut but he only had one style.

         As I got older we got the odd haircut at a barber shop so we learned that haircuts didn't have to be painful and they looked a little different than Dad's. When I got to high school I usually used my own money to get a haircut and avoid Dad even though he had bought an electric clipper.

         When I lived in the arctic haircuts were a challenge. One settlement had a barber but he was dreadful. The next settlement we lived in my wife cut my hair. We had electric clippers and she tried her very best to do a good job. Her style of cut was worse than Dad's. It was in an isolated area so few people saw me and it was better than nothing.

       When I moved south again there were more choices. I would find a barber to cut hair but my wife would criticise the job. So to please the judge I went from barber to barber. You'd get some good haircuts and some not so good.

      So then my wife persuaded me to let her cut my hair again. This was when hair was long. She did a great job and had the right cut. In her effort to do the perfect job she took a long time. I would whine about the length of time she took.

       So I might say that I have been traumatized when It comes to haircuts. I like the feel of a new haircut but I hate going for the session for my concern of criticism. If I could stand long hair I would avoid haircuts altogether.

      Haircuts ! What a quandary!