Friday, August 14, 2009

Give me a regular haircut

Today I got a haircut. For men this is easy to specify. Most men ask for and all barbers understand the "regular haircut." I don't know how the term originated. Maybe it referred to meeting Armed Forces "regulations." In any case, it is now a deeply embedded part of American culture. Sometimes the order might be modified with "a bit long" or "on the short side".

Of course, the barbers will also take special orders such as "flat top", "Mohawk", or "mullet". Most men don't care, so they simply say "give me a regular." Oftentimes, nothing is said, both the customer and barber say nothing and the cutting proceeds.

Today was a bit unusual, at least for me. Most barbers will quickly clip the excess ear hair characteristic of old men, and that happened. But what was unusual is that he also went for my right eyebrow and clipped the wild straight, often gray, hairs also characteristic of older men. I didn't particularly want it done, but it was too late to complain. Of course the left one had to be done for symmetry, so I said nothing. Now I look young ... heh.

The barber appeared Filipino. Maybe eyebrow customs are different there.

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