While I was sitting at the desk one day this week, an older gentleman patron walked up and said,
Brian, can I ask you a question? It's kind of personal.
Whoa-boy, I can only imagine where this is going. But of course I said sure.
Where do you get your hair cut?
Okay, now we're in my wheelhouse: I get asked for fashion and grooming advice all the time!
Anyway, he and I proceeded to have a nice exchange about local barbers and the advantageous way our hair style lends itself easily to do-it-yourselfers. I actually received Wahl clippers a few Christmases ago, and have been cutting my own hair ever since.
The patron was delighted to hear this - he has been too, but felt guilty about it. He was worried he wasn't doing a good enough job, and so had recently gone to a real barber. But he was shocked at how high the price was since the last time he went, and basically, I think, was looking for someone to tell him it was okay to cut his own hair. We also compared notes on clipper comb numbers and which is the best to use (I use #2 on the sides and #1 on the top).
I've been mostly bald since my twenties, and this is the bright side of having the same hair pattern as older guys: they are one more segment of patrons I can relate to through shared personal experience.
And although he complimented me on how nice my hair looked before he left, this interaction did remind me to put "cut hair" on my weekend to-do list.
