Haircut with the Women

כולם אומרים. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, גברים אומרים: שֶׁלֹּא עָשַׂנִי אשָּׁה נשים אומרות: שֶׁעָשַׂנִי כִּרְצוֹנוֹ.

Men- Blessed are you, Hashem, our G-d and king of the world, who did not make me a woman. Women- Blessed are you, Hashem, our G-d and king of the world, who made me according to his will.

It has been said periodically, and believed by a lot of people, that look good promotes feel good.  We can debate what look good means, from John Molloy's Dress for Success best seller of the 1970's to those Trumpkins that have emerged from our sewers who think their Nazi insignia is a form of look good.  I've dabbled with this correlation of appearance with well-being, but my suits or white coats never quite fit right, my pants that I payed a tailor to shorten too often got frayed at the cuffs, my hair gets cut when it's convenient to get it cut from where it is convenient to get it cut, and my eyeglasses get straighteded out at Costco when the frames bend enough to affect the vision.  My self-esteem never correlated well with pre- and post-haircut.

I look at Facebook submissions of Friends, largely HS classmates of my age.  The men all have gray hair with varying abundance, the women with few exceptions make a point of not having gray hair.  My nails are the color provided by nature, typically chipped by some form of manual activity, theirs are colors that might be found in an art museum.

So I really needed a haircut.  Usually I go to the New Castle Farmers Market which is a schlep but they have professional barbers who moonlight there on the weekends and they are open on Sundays.  They will straight razor the trim and shape the bushy eyebrows, all for a very competitive price which I supplement with a meaningful cash tip.  I didn't want to drive all the way there.  When I worked nearby, I would sometimes go to one of several local salon's nearby, which I started doing again in retirement.  One stood out, a little higher price than the others but a better experience to justify a small cash increment.   My wife had once even given me a Father's Day gift certificate there which I spent on a professional massage, which they apparently no longer offer.  So I gave it another go.

Interesting experience.  The other nearby places had men and women getting their hair revised in some way, even giving a discount for men on certain days.  This place had men's services in their brochure, but I was the only male on the premises unless the postman came by while they were tending to me.  I was also the only one with gray hair and if anyone else had too much facial hair, the estheticians had various waxes or lasers to make their faces smooth again.  The room where I had my massage those many years ago remains a private nook dedicated to skin services.

My basic haircut started with a shampoo.  Real barbers leave behind minor clippings which remain after the powdered brush and blower.  We wash our hair later that day at home.  Here, the belief is that the newly shampooed hair makes it easier for the stylist to control.  So neck hyperextended to put the scalp in a tub, refreshingly warm water in a shower type delivery applied, followed by shampoo.  I assume the stylist looks at the scalp, then decides between Prell or Kwell, lathers it up and rinses it off with a brief towel dry.

How would I like it cut, or really the first question was when I last had it cut.  A while ago.  I do not track this but most likely it was on a $14 Tuesday at the strip mall around the corner.  Potential styles:  Beatles, Bill Clinton, Nixon.  All mostly before her time.  I do not know how many businessmen she styles, but we settled on businesslike.  All around me ladies had various do-dads in their hair suggesting works in progress that will take a while.  Mine just got a lot of scissors with some electric clippers at the end.  No offer to tend to my unruly beard.  She probably has enough experience to never mess with the Rebbe's beard.  No offer to trim the eyebrows.  To be fair, she tended mostly to the shaping, which is the best I've had in recent memory.  Better proportion between the sides which were left a little longer than usual and top a little shorter than usual.  Good job if appearance is the end point.

Bit of sticker shock at the end.  Before going I read their online brochure and expected the price to be higher than the moonlighting barbers at the Farmers Market but not $10 above what was in their brochure.  Credit card inserted.  They only allow cash tips so I broke a large bill and put some in an envelope for the stylist.  Something a little more utilitarian and less expensive next time.