The Weeklong Haircut

When I was a youngster, during the Jurassic period, my Dad took my brother and me to a specific barber. He only charged something like $1.50 for a haircut. Dad always looked for a deal. On another occasion, we arrived to find the barbershop burned down! It was a non-union shop and could charge less. In the end, that apparently made some union people upset. Now his shop was gone.

What was my dad going to do now? He decided HE was going to give us haircuts! He set us down and set out to create a masterpiece. He never won awards for his hair carvings. We hated it.

For the next week or so he would find feathered out hairs on our heads that needed trimming. Out came the comb and scissors. I tried to move in with the neighbors to get away but it was no use. I was stuck with week-long haircuts.

After my freshman year at college, I met a girl (later to be my wife), who then took on the challenge of cutting my hair. She said she would only do it if I wore an Afro (okay, it was the '70s). She actually did a good job by using a ruler to section off my hair. It was a thing of beauty. I gave up the Afro sometime in the ’80s.

From then on it was off to the barber I went...until COVID. Now I do YouTube haircuts. Anything is possible with YouTube...except a good self-haircut. I just about gave up. I was thinking my barbering days are over and would have to go to a real barber, but the other day my wife was looking at me and said, “You did a good job on the back of your head.” It was a moment of inspiration. I finally found how to do a decent job. I guess I won’t be hanging up my clippers any day soon.
Wally Johnston© 2022
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What are you doing about haircuts? What else have you done to adjust to life with COVID? Perhaps you might like to share it with the other readers. Please send your story to me at journeyintostory@gmail.com. If it is an original story, I’ll be sure to credit the copyright to you.