After a rather busy day at work, I went for a haircut. I got home, kept my shoes on, gave the girls cats a treat, and then went straight to the barbershop about half a block away. When I rocked up, one of the owners was sitting outside. I asked if they were open and he took me inside and sat me down right away.
I got lucky.
As soon as he started cutting my hair, I asked if he had seen the new documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger. He couldn’t really hear me so he leaned in a bit and I repeated my question. I’m not sure that he heard me the second time, either, but he said that he had seen it. I thought it’d be a good way to start a conversation with the guy because he’s a bodybuilder.
Generally, I don’t like to say much while getting my hair cut. I like to stare at the blurry reflection – I have to take off my glasses – in the mirror and assess the quality of the work being done at the top of my head. This guy is pretty friendly and likes to talk. He asked me to remind him of my name. I only remembered his because he introduced himself to someone who was leaving as I was settling in.
There was another barber working.
I kept feeding him questions and he kept talking about bodybuilding. I’d heard much of it before, maybe a year ago now. Since then, I’ve tried a few other barbershops and had different barbers at this shop. He has a competition in October which he’ll start dieting for on July 1. He placed second at the last show.
When finishing up my haircut, he told me that I can ask the other barbers to finish off with a straight razor shave on the back of my neck. They stopped doing it during COVID and he wants to get back into it. As he was changing the blade, I remembered that I make safety razors with wood handles.
It took me a couple of minutes to work up the nerve. I also had to wait for a break in the conversation. Eventually, I asked if he’d be interested in carrying my razors in his shop. He wanted to see them so I showed him some pictures after my haircut was done. He said sure and I told him I’d bring a few by in the next month or so.
I’m not even sure that he heard me correctly because he then showed me a gold plated straight razor handle that he won at a barbershop competition.
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