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I've always hated having my haircut. I hate it so much, I prefer to get it over and done with quickly on a "first in" basis rather than the long lingering ordeal when you go at busy times. With that in mind, I made my way to a popular gents Greek/Cypriot hairdressers in the centre of town that usually opens at 8.30 before the crowds arrive. A "something for the weekend, sir?" joint. What follows is 100% true.
I arrived at 8.30am waiting for it to open. 8.45am another punter arrives and waits patiently. Finally at 9.05, the young oik who usually sweeps up turns up, looking slightly different but couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. We all go in. The other punter starts reading paper and I'm getting ready to jump up to the hotseat, coz I'm first, innit? Meanwhile, "Sweeper-upper" is searching around the shop looking nervous and distracted. Suddenly the phone rings and is answered by Mr Sweeper-Upper.
"What do you mean you're not coming in??……Are you serious?…..No I can't…..Seriously, I've left them at home and I can't see a thing…..I couldn't even sign a cheque…..OK…..OK….but I'm not going to be held responsible"
The other punter looks at me and I look at him.
Then Mr Sweeper-Upper takes a deep breath, pats the back rest of the hotseat and says nervously "Who's first?" (I'm not sure if he was talking to the hat stand at the time)
I look at the other punter and he gives me a look that says "You're first, son"
So I get up and sit in the hotseat.
"…and what will it be, Sir?" he says as he ties a sheet around my neck and flops a rubber mat over my shoulders.
"Erm….as it is now, only a little bit shorter, please"
There then follows a few minutes of opening and closing drawers, picking up and putting down a variety of combs, picking up various scissors, doing 2 snips in the air, looking surprised, then putting the scissors back down. I look at this nervously in the mirror. Meanwhile, the other punter quietly folds his newspaper, gets up and walks out, avoiding all eye contact.
Then there's a sudden "click" and a whirring noise and I notice that young Vidal has found the clippers. Gripping the clippers as you would grasp the throat of an angry ferret, he announces "I think we'll start with the clippers". By now my heart is pounding, my mouth is dry and I'm in two minds whether or not to call a halt to the proceedings. Unfortunately, my "anxious not to offend" British gene kicks in. My brain says "no" but my mouth says "yes".
He takes a few stabs at my scalp. Each stab reaches wood and throws up a chunk of hair which flutters down slowly while he lines up for the next stab.
I didn't pay too much attention to what happened next. I know that the ordeal lasted a good 30 minutes, involved lots of stepping back a few paces, squinting as if trying to focus and holding up a thumb to try to form some sort of perspective then taking a few more stabs. A few punters came, sat down, looked on in disbelief for 30 seconds and then departed slowly, walking backwards.
By the time he'd finished, I looked like I'd cut it myself, with one hand (the left one) in the dark, after downing a bottle of gin. In a strange way, I looked 6 stone lighter and quite unwell.
When he'd finished, and showing a total lack of insight into his own inabilities, he held up the mirror to the back of my head. All 3 corners looked equally bad – spiky bits, bald bits, traumatised bits and long bits. In order to end the ordeal swiftly, I said "Great, thanks", paid up and left. Twenty quid – 1995 prices.
While stood outside, waiting for Mrs T, I definately attracted some prolonged stares (and not in a good way). I could sense people bumping into each other as the unwanted stares at my head distracted attention. A few couples stared at me, then mouthed "Poor s*d" to each other before rushing past. It got worse when Mrs T arrived from her shopping trip. I could see her mouthing "WTF??" from 100 yards away.
What's happened to your hair?" she said. "You look mentally ill"
"It's a long story, let's go home. I've had enough."
"You're not coming home with me looking like that! Lets go to my hairdressers and get it done properly"
Now, that sounded like a good idea in theory, but in reality it was a non starter. Nobody walks into a ladies boutique hairdressers with hair ranging from 0mm to 5mm asking for a haircut.
So we went straight to Boots to buy some clippers.
Much as I love Mrs T, she's not a hairdresser and nobody in their right mind would let her anywhere near to their head with a hair cutting implement, not least one that is plugged in to the mains. But needs must and when we got home, she set the dial to 1mm and clipped away. There then followed the longest 10 minutes of marital tension we'd experienced in 20 years. However, when she finished, it did't look too bad. Although I looked like I'd been having chemotherapy, it looked 90% better than it did and all was well with the world once more.
Never been to a hairdresser since. Not a word of this is made up. DIY all the way now, as far as I'm concerned.