A Cut And A Shave

The first haircut I remember was at some barber shop downtown in an old house. You had to take stairs on the outside of the building up to a small room with 2 barber chairs and a crusty old guy waiting with little patience. I imagine him as a barber in the army giddily cutting 18 and 19 year olds shoulder-length hair, readying them for the next miserable four years of their life. Looking at them in the mirror as he ran his clippers over their rock and roll-inspired hair dos, feeling a warmth growing from his gut as they fight back tears.

I think I lasted about two minutes in the chair before I freaked out, thinking this guy was going to take my whole head off. My dad – embarrassed and in shock – pulled me down from the chair and loading me back into the boat of our Oldsmobile and took us home. My second haircut was in the basement of my parents home, me sitting on a barrel we used to store winter coats and a Spiderman towel wrapped around me like a cloak of invincibility. I didn’t freak out that time as the surroundings were familiar and inviting. And the barber was in fact my dad this time.

As I got a little older we found another barber shop in town, Conley’s Barber Shop. It was originally run by a Mr. Conley, and probably wasn’t far off from the first jarhead that attempted(and failed) to cut my hair. But besides him his sons were also barbers in the shop and they weren’t nearly as scary as a grizzled old ex-marine. So Conley’s was where I got my hair cut for several years, until I turned the pre-teen age of 12. That’s when I started going to a salon, the same place that my mom went called DC Haircrafters.

I was entering middle school and I needed something a little “cooler” than, say, a buzzcut or a bowl cut. So after a couple cuts with a few of the stylists I finally found “my” stylist. Her name was Sharon and she was right out of beauty college. I was 12 and she was 22. I instantly felt comfortable with Sharon. She was laid back, didn’t ask too many questions, and just had an ease about her. This was what I needed in a stylist, especially as a shy, worried, and mildly paranoid pre-teen boy. I’d tell her what I was going for and she’d do her best with my naturally curly, wavy hair.

At the time in 1986-1987 all the cool guys were doing that kind of long in the back and short and spikey on the top. I wanted that, and when I’d leave the salon after my cut that’s what I had. But I could never quite emulate that fresh cut look. I’d used too much product and my hair would look wet all day, or I’d sweat during gym and it would ruin the look(I never took hair products to school to use in my after gym shower.) What would happen is that the spikey hair would dull and I’d end up looking like I had feathered hair like John Travolta, or Jason Bateman in Silver Spoons.

I would say that my stylist/client relationship with Sharon was possibly one of the longest relationships I ever had in my life. Besides my family and best friend from the third grade, Sharon saw me through high school graduation, getting married, becoming a dad, and became our family stylist. She cut all of my kids hair, as well as my wife and I. And I saw Sharon as a new stylist out of college, then getting married and becoming a mom, then a grandma. She inspired my daughter to want to become a hair stylist. I’m sure there were other factors for her reason to want to cut hair, but I know Sharon was an influence on her.

Late in 2020 I decided to shave what hair I had left on my head and didn’t have a need for haircuts. So from 1986 to 2020 Sharon was my stylist. 34 years. That’s longer than most marriages. My wife still went to see Sharon, and maybe my son did for a bit, but then in 2022 our daughter started beauty school, and in the summer of 2024 she graduated. She started an apprenticeship with a very high end salon, even before she had graduated school. But they realized she just wasn’t ready yet so she was let go. A week after she graduated in July of 2024 she got a job at a Costcutters. She was there three or four months, but didn’t really get much practice as apparently nobody goes to Costcutters. She would spend 8 hours in there and maybe cut one head of hair. Another new and up and coming salon opened and wanted her to work for them, so she happily quit Costcutters to work there. As with the last salon, after a month or so they realized she needed to work on her speed so they let her go but with the promise that they most definitely want her back. They even put a good word in for her at Great Clips, and after a 30 minute interview she was hired.

Now, she’s thriving at Great Clips. Sure it’s a chain salon but she’s getting as much work and practice as she can take. Pay and tips are decent, and the biggest thing is she likes her boss and the ladies she works with. And when she’s comfortable enough with her speed and skills she has a spot waiting for her at the other salon.

So where did I go yesterday after work? I went to Great Clips and got a cut and trim from my daughter. Sure, I don’t have much hair. But I started to grow it back out and it was at the point that a trim was in order. With what little hair I have, she made it look pretty damn good. Plus, I got a free comb!

---

I feel pretty lucky to have had the people that cut my hair(yeah, even that crustly old marine was just doing his job), and that I had someone like Sharon to have taken care of me and my “styles” as it were for over three decades. I felt bad when I stopped going, as not only was she my stylist but she was a friend. First to me, then to my family. I haven’t seen her in probably close to five years, but I hope she’s doing well.

I’d like to thank her for all those years of great cuts and Christmas cards in the mail, and taking care of my own kids in her chair. And for inspiring my daughter to follow her dream as well. Because now, I can go sit in a chair after work for 15, 20 minutes and have my daughter give me a new style. I need the cut, but being able to sit and talk to her is just as important as what the top of my head looks like.