JimB
Mom at the barber
By JimB (C)right March 1998
Last summer was one of the hottest summers in recent year, the temperature was crossing 103-FHD.
It was very hot time.
But it was time for change.
The weather was getting hotter each day.
You sweated almost almost every day.
Boys were getting head shaves, girls were cutting their hair short. Some even cut their hair short like the boys.
Mom liked her hair long. She had long hair as a child and teenager.
She was forty seven years old, with her thick black hair.
She was a wife and mother.
She kept her hair in good condition, letting it grow to her waist.
Once she let her hair grow to her knees.
But cut her hair to the middle of her back after her long hair got caught in some bushes in her garden. A few years later she cut her long hair to her waist.
She tried different long hair styles. She even had her long hair in a bun with different hair clips.
She never thought about cutting her long hair.
One day the weather got hotter and the air conditioner was not working. Dad tried to find an air condition repair man to fix the air conditioner for mom.
He found out you could not get a repair man for three weeks.
I started spending most of the day at a friend’s, dad went to work early.
Mom staid home.
One day she was struggling with her long hair.
“Isn’t your long hair a problem?” I asked her.
“Yes.
“But I manage,” she told me.
“It’s getting hotter every day,” I told her. “Why don’t you get a short hair cut?”
She always got nervous when she hear words “hair cut”.
“I thinking about doing that some time,” she told me and dad.
But she never get hair cut.
“You should get a hair cut today!” I told her in demanding way.
She was shocked when I told her in a demanding way.
“Yes I want a hair today,” she surprising told me.
“Now, the long hair is too much.”
She realized her long hair was really a problem in the hot Summer month.
“I called a few hair salons and they closed for indefinite time due to the hot weather,” she told me.
“How about a barber shop,” I asked her.
“They are not closed.”
She was nervous now.
“Barber shop!
“No, no,” mom said.
“I can cut your hair if you don’t want go to a barber shop today,” I told her. She was silent for a few minutes.
“Okay I will go,” she told me.
She changed her clothes to something shorter in lenght and not to tight.
I told her the directions to the barber shop and she was ready to go.
Twenty minutes later she came back, with her long hair in the braid she left with.
“The barber shop was too crowded,” she told me.
“I don’t need a hair cut.”
I told her I would take her to another barber shop a little far away.
And, we could walk to the barber shop.
We reached the other barber shop, after a walking of thirty minutes. It was an old barber shop.
And it was not crowded and they had a lady barber.
There were two barber chairs, both were occupied.
One barber chair was occupied by an old man, who was getting a short hair cut by a male barber.
The other barber chair had a little girl getting her hair cut short by a lady barber.
I told mom to have a in seat on waiting bench which was empty.
“How much time will it take?” I asked the lady barber.
“Your my next customer,” she told me.”
“My mom is getting hair cut, not me” I told her
“Salons closed?” she said with a smile.
I nodded “yes”.
“Your next,” I told mom as we watched the lady barber.
“What kind of hair is the lady barber giving the little girl?” she asked me. “A buzz cut,” I told her.
“Buzz Cut!” mom asked.
“She is using a attachmentless clippers to buzz all her hair off.” I told her. “Why did she give the little girl a BUZZ cut?” she asked me.
“Because of the HOT weather!” I told mom.
The little girl was helped out the barber chair by the lady barber.
She paid the lady barber and walked out the barber shop.
“Your turn,” the lady barber said to mom.
Mom nervously walked to the barber chair and sat in the barber chair.
She put the cape around her neck.
Her long braid was pulled from the cape and was dropped backward.
Her long thick braid was now dangling behind the barber chair.
“What should I do?” she asked mom holding the braid for mom to see. “Snip it all off,” I told lady barber.
“I want a bob,” mom told the lady barber.
“Long bob or short?” the lady barber started to ask mom.
“Mom wants a boy hair cut,” I interrupted quickly.
“Just cut all my hair off,” mom said with hesitation at first.
The lady barber took large scissor.
Placed it near shoulder, little below it and sniped it holding the braid with left hand.
Mom was trying to watch the chop.
But the lady barber had her turned so she could not see the chopping.
I got a very good view watching each chop, each strand being cut off of the braid until the braid was in barber’s hand.
She placed the long braid on the waiting chair in front of mom.
She used a comb to comb the chopped hair for cutting.
Then combed it with regular comb, all mom’s hair was combed mom’s backward.
The lady barber separated her hair into four parts and combed mom’s hair into four smaller section.
She reached for a clipper with the half inch attachment and tilted her head down.
With in an inserted the back of mom’s head was clippered to half an inch sending chunks of hair to floor. She took a scissor and cut her hair at the hairline.
Mom’s hair was wet with a sprayer
She moved the hair in front, parting it at left side of her head.
She did the same on right side.
She placed the scissor at her ear length and snipped it. She bent her ear and comb and scissor her chopped her right side short.
Her cape was covering with her hair now. Her hair was now all short.
She tilted her head the left and started cutting her hair.
She was cutting very fast, as she combed and cutting.
Mom’s lap was full of hair now.
She snipped a little more on the right side of mom head.
The lady barber wet her side burns and behind her ears.
“I’m going to trim shave her hair line,” she told me.
I nodded in “YES”.
The lady barber quickly shaved her nape, below the hairline, shaving it off. The lady barber showed me the attachmentless clippers.
“Your mom told me to “cut if all off”!” the lady barber told me.
“Yes she did,” I told the lady barber.
CLICK
Mom heard the “click”.
“Just sit back and let the lady barber give you the hair cut you asked for,” I told mom and just sat back wand watched.
The lady barber slowly moved the attachmentless clippers over mom head until all you could see was skin.
The lady barber tuned the attachmentless clippers off and hung it under the shelf.
She turned and showed me her straight razor.
“She told you to “cut it all off!” I told the lady barber.
She wrapped a warm towel around mom’s attachmentless clipping.
She showed me and mom the shaving lather.
Mom asked with “question look”.
“She is just giving you the hair cut you asked for,” I told mom.
The lady lather her head.
The lady barber showed me her straight razor.
I smiled.
“You are doing what mom said she wants,” I told her.
She showed mom the straight razor.
“She is going to give you the hair cut you told her to give you,” I told mom before she could give me the question look.
The lady barber shaved mom’s head slowly.
With mom’s head almost shaved completely, the lady barber looked at me and pointed to mom’s eyebrows.
I raised my arms in “What”.
Then I thought and pointed to my eyebrows and moved a finger over them. The lady barber quickly shaved mom’s eyebrows.
She removed the cape and dusted mom’s face and shaved head.
“This the hair cut you asked me to give you,” lady barber told mom as she lowered the barber chair for mom to step out.
Mom stood next to me looking at her self in the mirror about the waiting chairs.
The lady barber and I watched as mom moved her fingers over “the hair cut she asked to given to her and she told the lady barber give her”.
Mom smiled.
“I like the shaved eyebrows.
“I am glad the lady barber …..
“Gave me “the hair cut I asked for and wanted.”
I paid the lady barber and went to home.
Mom moved her fingers over her shaven head as we went home.
“I should have gotten this hair cut years ago,” she told me when we arrived home.
“Maybe you should get your hair cut like I got my hair cut,” mom told me with a smile.
When dad saw mom, he smiled.
“I should have gotten this hair cut years ago!” she told him.
Dad smiled.
“See you in the morning ….!”
