Cutting Remarks
“If you prick me do I not bleed?”
I have never seen the “Merchant of Venice,” but that line is part of a famous monologue from that Shakespearean play. It came into my mind recently when I went to get a haircut.
What with all of the disruptions to our lives this year the little things like haircuts have been few and far between. My last ride in the Barber’s Chair was in January of 2020. As I write this the calendar on the wall insists that today is September 9, 2020. That is a long time to go without getting a haircut.
I get haircuts not “Styling,” so I’m not terribly picky about where I get my hair cut. All I ask is that the person doing the cutting has been trained and that they listen to me. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
It was 10 AM when I trundled myself and my nine months worth of increasingly graying hair through 
the door of the franchise hair cutting place. I hesitate to call it a “Barber Shop.” There was no revolving barber pole by the door. There was no “Barber” in there, just a very nice young lady who looked about 12 years old to me. She was going to cut my hair. I’m sure she has never given anyone a shave…other than her own legs perhaps. I wasn’t there for that. It was my head or nothing.
Whenever I have a new person cutting my hair I always start by telling them that I have a bump on the back of my head. It’s not a tumor. It’s not going to explode. It’s not going to bleed unless you stab it (See quote at the beginning). It is just a reservoir of fat and miscellaneous tissue. My doctors have expressed no concern about it. The only uproar came a few years ago when a newbie haircutter freaked out in mid haircut.
But not today.
The 12 year old reminded me that she was the person who cut my hair in January. At least there would be no screaming today.
When I sat down in her chair she commented on the mountain of hair on my skull.
“Shall I just get out my Sheep Shears?”
“Ha…Ha…Ha”
Those Sheep Shears might have worked, but I didn’t want to get involved in all the wrestling on the floor I’ve seen in real sheep shearing.
That gal may have been younger than the shirt I was wearing, but she knew her way around a head. She had me shorn and shaped within fifteen minutes. It would have been quicker if I had not had ears that needed navigating around. Fifteen minutes (Van Gogh would have been done in half the time) after I sat down I was feeling the breeze for the first time in months.
I’ll tell you one thing – the next time there is a Pandemic around here I’m going to get my head shaved and start over from scratch.
Down the Hall on Your Left 
After the first couple of months at the start of the pandemic, I decided to cut my hair. I hadn’t thought much about shaving it all off until a few weeks before. I told my wife that I was considering hacking it all off, and she looked at me to see if I was serious, or the old coot had finally lost his marbles. I don’t think she took me seriously. Then one late night, it all came off while she was sleeping. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall and seen her reaction to waking up next to a bald dude.
It wasn’t bad. I kept it that way for two months until deciding to grow it back. Just passing some time. What did you do on your summer vacation?🤣
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It just kept on growing. It was like being back in college 🙃
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So funny, John!!
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It’s growing back but not as thick.
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😀
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