Remember a few days ago when I had a hair issue with my barber? Well, I took myself down to my barber (Dino) early yesterday morning. He was surprised to see me again so soon after my haircut of last week. He said "Another haircut?" I said "No, I'm here to get more cut off the right side of my head."
Dino scrunched his nose like he smelled a skunk had just walked into his barber shop and said "Whatsa matter?" Now here is where I had to tread very, very carefully. One does not want to offend one's barber, especially if he is one of few remaining old school Italian-American barbers who specialize in giving old men like moi good haircuts that old men like moi can never get from the women "stylists" in those overpriced "salons." You know why they call them "stylists" don't you? That way they can charge you three times the price of a standard barber and cut your hair so little that you have to go back in two weeks for another "styling." But I digress.
Yesterday I was in dangerous territory when I went back to my barber for a fix up of my choppy haircut. There was no point in pissing him off. I know what happened when he screwed up my hair. He was cutting it when one of his former female employees came in and was trying to persuade him to join her at her new gig at her STYLIST salon! OH NO! So Dino was talking to her, defending all his reasons for staying in his barber shop at the back of the Elements Beauty Supply store in the Safeway Shopping Center in Rehoboth. All the while he's talking to her he's chopping away at my hair. I was in a hurry and I certainly didn't want to engage her in conversation as a potential new customer so when Dino whipped off the hair collecting apron he had around my neck, I paid him and sprinted out of his barber shop. Under normal circumstances I would have looked in the mirror to check my haircut as I always do. But today I just wanted to get out of there and away from that woman (no offense to any female fans of this blog.)
I told Dino "I need a little cut off here" as I motioned to the upper right side of my hair where there was major Bed Hair sticking out. He scrunched up his nose again and said "Oh yeah." He said "I'm sorry." I told him "No, no. It's my fault. You asked me 'how do you like it?' and I said 'Okay'. It's my fault." Dino's scrunched up nose returned back to normal and I hopped up in his chair. I quickly changed the subject by asking him when he was visiting his family for Christmas. He said "I leave tomorrow to visit my son and his family." Thank goodness. I got through the Barber Minefield. He wasn't pissed off. I was getting my bad haircut fixed while at the same time allowing Dino to maintain his self-respect.
Hey, take a look! What do you think? Nice, huh?
