Something fashionable and fairly short

"Good morning sir, would you like to take a seat?" That’s how it started. When I walked into the barbers I knew I wanted something short, but not exactly how short. My hair was about 4 inches long on top and trimmed neatly around the back and sides. A cautious safe style that I had had since I was about 10. It was time for a change but to what? So as I sat in the chair while the barber fixed the cape around my neck I tried to think what style to ask for. "What will it be today sir?" "Um......not sure" I mumbled. "Sorry sir, you will have to speak up as I’m a little bit deaf". "Something fashionable and fairly short." I said. The barber smiled at me in a reassuring sort of way and said "Number 1 all over then?" Now I had no idea what a number 1 was but he seemed to know what he was doing so I told him that would be fine. Now I am very short sighted so cant see without my specs which by now were sitting on the table in front of me, so what ever the barber did would be sight unseen until I could put them back on.

Anyway he picked up the clippers, fitted an attachment to it and switched them on. The buzzing sound made me jump a little. Then the barber firmly put his hand on my head and ran the clippers up the right side of my head slowly and carefully making pass after pass around the sides and back of my head. All the time he pushed my head into just the right position so the clippers could cut as close as possible. Finally he moved on to the top and pushed the clippers straight back down the middle. In the mirror I could vaguely make out a light stripe running down the middle but not very clearly. At this point I have to say I was worried, but not too much as I put it down to the lighting and thought my hair was standing up in some way. Five minutes more and the cut was done.

He took out a cut throat razor and carefully shaved around the edges. Then using his white brush he brushed off any stray hairs. "There you are sir, a number 1 all over. That should keep you cool during the hot summer days." I picked up my glasses and put them on. A different person looked back at me. I had just a light shadow of hair left, being blond I looked virtually bald. I was shocked to say the least. The barber kindly showed me the back and said "The skinhead look is very fashionable at the moment, you’re the third guy today to opt for it." Stunned, I climbed out of the chair, paid the barber and for no real good reason even gave him a tip! I looked in the mirror again and gulped. How on earth was I going to explain it to my friends? I had only just started at college and none of the guys in my year had a skinhead hair cut. Well I couldn’t stick it back on so I would just have to wear a baseball cap all the time.

It took a fair bit of courage to walk into the local pub that evening. My two best friends were waiting for me and had even bought a drink ready for when I showed up. I sat down and took a good long drink of beer. "Well" said Pete. "Well what" I replied. "Lets have a look at your new hair style." I had forgotten that we had talked about what new style I was going to have just the other day. Just then John grabbed my baseball cap and pulled it off. The look on their faces was one of complete horror (at least that’s what I thought). Both my mates stared at me speechless for a few seconds before Pete said "Wow, that’s fantastic! I never thought you would go all the way to a skinhead haircut." I explained what happened and that I actually asked for "Something fashionable and fairly short." John started laughing. "You went to Tony’s down the bottom end of the High street didn’t you?" "Yes" I said. "He’s as deaf as a door post so when you said "Something fashionable and fairly short." he probably heard it as "Something fashionable and very short." which of course a number 1 all over is." John said. Both Pete and John said that no matter how I ended up with the cut they thought it really suited me. At the time I didn’t believe them and thought they were being nice about it. That was until they both turned up with the same haircut as me the next day.