A few days ago I was returning from one of my walks and runs that I do almost daily to enjoy, according to medical criteria, good health and stay fit, when I passed in front of a hairdresser’s near my house.
You know that today the barbershop business has become more modern. That barbershop you went to 40 years ago called ‘Peluquería Rodríguez’ is now called ‘Rodri’s Brothers Barber’. They have eye-catching signs, some in the purest American style and others vintage. Modern, but at the same time classic. And so on with everything. Things have evolved, just like gyms.
Well, and getting back to what I was saying, I passed by a barbershop where I had already tried on a previous occasion to get a cut of the little hair I had left, always receiving the answer “it can’t be today”.
-I’m sorry, I can’t even trim your beard, I’m fully booked. If it suits you, I could make an appointment for the day after tomorrow at around 6pm – the busy barber told me the first time I went.
-No, thank you. I need the repair by tomorrow and I can’t wait – was my blunt response.
The truth is that if I had wanted to get my hair cut in two days I would have waited that long to go.
I’m not up to date. I still think that things are still the same as before, but that’s not the case. Today you have to make an appointment even to enter hell – well, for that, probably not, although it’s better not to know.
The barbershop looked good. Old-fashioned barber chairs, modern decor that made you suspect that hair styles and cuts were up to date, and a young guy as barber-hairdresser who seemed to know his job well.
There was something strange about the whole thing, the hairdresser was from here, that is, Spanish. Have you noticed – I’m referring to my male readers – how many Moroccan barbers work in Granada? They are all very good professionals, yes, but it is now rare to find one from here.
With all these positive elements, I returned after a while to try my luck, and once again, I was met with the same response: all the hours are full and you come back tomorrow.
-He must be a real expert with scissors, always with a full schedule – I thought.
As they say, there are no two without three, so I insisted for the third time after a few days.
This time I was lucky. Not because he had a busy schedule, but because I managed to convince him that it wouldn’t take long to shave off the four hairs I have and that was all I wanted. In the end he “snuck” me in ahead of another client who was 10 minutes late.
In the conversations that one usually has with barbers while they are styling your hair, if not, you will fall asleep in the chair from so much shaking on your scalp, this professional spoke to me about trends and fashions in men’s haircuts and hairstyles.
-I can follow very few trends and fashions – I let slip at one point – with this little material, little or nothing can be done other than a good shave and take it home.
Suddenly, and almost finishing the work on my head, he noticed my beard.
-It’s perfectly maintained, but it doesn’t follow the fashion – he had the courage to tell me. Although it is very well defined and trimmed, nowadays the trend is to leave it longer, especially around the chin, like a hipster – he concluded.
-I’m not very interested in fashions and trends -I continued the conversation-, I don’t follow alternative music, I don’t practice urban sports and I’m not a bohemian. I like it the way it is.
In the end he gave up trying to convince me to grow a hipster beard and a Dali moustache.
When I left there I was happy. In 15 minutes I had caught up on the latest news, ideas and fashions in hairstyles, beards, mustaches and various haircuts, as well as leaving with my head clean-shaven and cool for the coming heat.
The sad and above all melancholic part of all this is that I started thinking that one day I had hair. I remembered the millions of hair follicles that gave me a considerable mane full of suggestive curls. And above all I also relived in my mind those long and relaxing half-hour haircuts in which I would remain ecstatic and half asleep in the hands of the hairdresser while he was messing around on my roof. Today all that is reduced to a scant quarter of an hour and this is what hurts me the most because of the lack of enjoyment. Besides, going shaved is a great advantage and convenience.
Barber shops of yesteryear were simple places, with worn leather swivel chairs, large mirrors and the unmistakable scent of cheap cologne and aftershave. Young men would go there to get their hair trimmed and occasionally shaved with a razor sharpened by expert hands. It was an experience that combined danger and pleasure, like riding a bike with no hands or eating sushi at a roadside gas station.
All this happened in an atmosphere of camaraderie, bad jokes and Interviús magazines, where our hairdresser was as well known as our family doctor.
One day I will tell you about the hairdressing academy where I usually get my hair cut, where the future barbers are trained, and the experiences and anecdotes I have had with all of them. They are a delight and, in addition, the hairdressing salon is a good culture, that of the people. It is one of the few places, apart from in a taxi in conversation with the taxi driver, where you can take the pulse of the current reality, the feelings of the people.
And as a conclusion to this writing about hairdressers, and to end with a touch of humor, I ask you if you know that joke about “the curtain opens” that goes like this:
“The curtain opens and we see a woman trying to get into a crowded hair salon. What is the name of the movie? Ah! You curl your hair as best you can.”
Happy summer.
