I always remembered going to the barber as a child with my father.  I must admit that I never thought too much about it.  I would just jump in the chair and didn’t have any real input into how my hair was cut.  This uneventful process went on for years.  As I got older I started going to salons b/c I was more self-conscience on how my hair looked.  I have fairly straight hair that is sandy blonde.  So, I would usually have it highlighted in the summer.  One time, I even had my hair permed.  Boy was that a disaster.  This process continued through college and even a while afterwards.

 I stumbled across the Haircut Site about a year ago.  I started reading the posts by accident; and than I became more and more fascinated with them.  I must admit I was initially turned off by the board because there is obviously a lot of sexual undertones in the posts.  I could care less about those because I was totally committed to my girlfriend and only interested in girls.  However, the posts about haircuts really drew me in.  I kept reading the posts for months and months.  I was amazed how so many people were analyzing their barbershop experiences.  My hair wasn’t that long, “ I thought to myself.”  I probably had one of those Friends type haircuts or a longer Ricky Martin haircut.  Of course I had the blonde streaks in my brushed up bangs etc.

 Well, after reading and reading I decided I wanted to try something different – something shorter.  I had to go try a barbershop.  Now the hard part came.  I had two dilemmas.  Where was I going to get a haircut and what kind of haircut was I going to get.   I decided as far as the haircut was concerned I would just tell the barber I wanted something shorter.  That way, I would kinda of be surprised by the whole experience.  As far as the barbershop is concerned, I located a small barbershop (only one barber) about ten miles from my house.  Now everything was in place for the big experiment.

 I woke up early on Saturday morning b/c I wanted to get to the barbershop early.  When I arrive at Carlo’s Barbershop, there was a guy paying at the register and only one guy waiting.  Carlo said hi and I took a seat and waited.  The guy who was getting ready to have his haircut had very short hair (at least I thought so).  I am not that familiar with clipper lengths but his hair was fairly short on the sides and couldn’t have been more than an inch or so on the top.  Before long Carlo was clipping this guys head.  He quickly shaved the first inch or so above his ears.  All you could see was flesh.   I was amazed at how precise Carlo was.  He took over ten minutes just clipping the sides and back of this guys head.  

During that whole time he switched clippers a few times.  I think he was blending in the sides and back.  He finally turned off the clippers and quickly sprayed the top of this guy’s head.  With a few quick snips of the scissors there was just enough hair on top to comb forward.  He grabbed some gel and rubbed it in briskly into his head.   Before long he was placing shaving cream over his ears and neck.  I noticed that he actually shaved his head about one inch above his ears and pretty high up his neck.  Before I knew it the guy had paid and Carlo turned to me and smiled and said your up next.

I quickly took a seat in the chair.  I didn’t want to chicken out.  Besides I thought, I can actually turn in this great story for everybody to read.  Carlo firmly wrapped a tissue around my neck.  Just like when I was kid.  As he draped the red and white striped caped over me he started asking me questions about how I wanted my haircut.   He made a comment about my hair being highlighted.  I thought that was unusual considering he was a barber.  I finally just answered and said I want to try something shorter and different.  Just give me the works.  I trust ya.   Carlo quickly acknowledge that he would fix me up for the summer.  He told me that I came to the right place and that he does a lot of special summer cuts.

Before long the clippers came to life.  I have no idea what blade number he used.  All I know was that I could feel metal pressing against the side of my head.  I think he was probably using the same blade as he did on the other guy before me.  He quickly clippered the left side of my head and moved on to the back.  As he was moving around to my right side, my hand went up to feel my head.  I could still feel hair but it was almost like stubble now.  I thought to myself.  Cool.  I am really getting a short haircut.  Carlo just kinda of chuckled and said you think it is short enough.  I said yeah, whatever you want to do is fine with me.

After the sides and back of my head was thorough clippered, Carlo sprayed down the top of my head.  He very meticulously cut the top of my hair working from the back of my head to the front.  I could see huge clumps of wet hair falling on the cape.     He spent a good ten minutes or so cutting the top of my hair with scissors and blending in the sides and back.

Before long, he unwrapped the tissue around my neck and I could hear the lather machine churning as he grabbed a huge pile of shaving cream in his hand.  He quickly massaged the shaving cream around my ears and the back of my neck.  I felt the straight razor slowly scraping away the fragment of some stray hairs.  I did notice that he didn’t shave a high arch around my ears or way above my ears. 

After the outline shave, I felt a little sting as he rubbed in some after shave around my ears and my neck.  Before I knew what was coming, Carlo tilted the chair back and I was now in a reclined position.  He told me that I was looking scruffy and that I could use a good shaved.  I heard the water running behind me but I could see anything.  The next thing I knew was that he was placing a very hot towel over my face.  It really burned at first but it felt great.   He pressed the towel firmly into my face and let it set there for a minute or so.  

He next rubbed in some lotion on my face.  He told me it would soften my beard and make the shave go easier.   He placed another hot steaming towel over my face.  I swear this one was hotter than the first one.  I almost jumped.  Before I knew it, he removed the towel and lather my face up with shaving cream.  I had never been shaved before (especially with a straight razor).  It was so weird.  You could actually hear the scraping of the blade against the skin.   He definitely had a firm stroke.  He didn’t even flinch as he shaved my entire face.  Well the shave was over before I knew it.  The splash of the after shave was definitely a wake up call.  I almost jumped out of the barber chair.

Well, I thought to myself.  I have been in this chair for over 30 minutes.  I have had a short haircut and a totally cool straight razor shave.  The one thing I thought was funny was that he never really combed my hair or gelled it.  He clipperd it and  cut it but he never did anything with it.  Just as soon as the thought passed my mind I saw him mixing up a solution in an applicator bottle.  I knew what those were, I had my hair highlighted for years.  Without even telling me what he was doing, he started dumping the bleaching peroxide solution on my hair.  

He finally said, I thought you might want to go platinum for the summer to go with your new short hair.   Wow, I didn’t know barbers did that kind of thing, I thought to myself.  By now, a few guys had entered the shop.  I felt kinda of weird sitting there with bleach on my hair.  Carlo told the guys that he would be another 30 minutes or so and that they could wait or just come back in a few.  The guys nodded and said no prob we will be back.  I asked Carlo if he bleaches a lot of hair and he told me that he does quite a few of them during the summer.   He told me in the future if I wanted to schedule an after hours appointment, I could just call ahead in advance.

Well after what seemed like a lifetime Carlo leaned the barber chair back and started to wash my hair.  It actually felt good.  The bleach can be very rough on your hair.  After a few minutes of washing and conditioning, he toweled dried my hair.   He finally turned the chair around to face the mirror.  It had been almost an hour and I hadn’t see what my hair looked it.  I didn’t even recognize myself.  He held up the mirror to show me the back of my hair.  It was clippered very tight around the ears and back of my head.  You could definitely seem some skin especially with the bleached hair.  He put down the mirror and started rubbing some gel in my hair.  He brushed everything forward and flipped up the bangs.  I ended up with a very short Ricky Martin look except that the sides and back were tapered very tight. 

Well he finally swung the barber chair around and undid the cape slightly, he brushed my neck off and dusted me with some powder.   At this point, I had no idea what I was going to pay for this.  I walked over to he register, having a hard time keep my hands off my hand.  It was so cool feeling my hair, it felt like sandpaper.  The whole bill – only $20.00.  I couldn’t believe it.  I handed him another $20.00 for good measure.  Carlo smiled and thanked me.  He handed me his business card and told me to call ahead for an appointment next time and he would make sure I got the special treatment.

 WOW,  going to the barbershop was a great experience for me.