Hair.....

.... I wandered into town to visit my friendly barberess, Eva, around lunchtime yesterday..... and she was, as usual, spry & entertaining..... herself getting on in age, she bounced around her elderly patrons snipping, combing, spraying, and massaging...... and in the end, each dusty old Southern Belle left satisfied (and quite buzzed from the cloud of hairspray fumes they'd just inhaled courtesy of Eva...)....

..... I arrived at my appointed time, of course.... but was still forced to wait for a bit while the thinning head of someone's Great Grandmother had the final touches performed upon it..... I picked up her purse for her as she struggled to manhandle her walker, and opened the door for her as she toddled out to her middle-aged daughter's Land Cruiser...... and then, as you do, I sat myself down in the old, faux-leather spinning chair for my three-dollar haircut......

..... I've written about a few of my trips to Eva's place in the past...... one here.... and one here...... and here, and here...... and it truly is a treat to sit and watch as Events Unfold at her business....... to be privy to the gossip and stories of those ancient Southern women, well, every single time is a gem......

.... today, though, there was little drama and even less gossip..... I'd planned on rushing back home anyway, so we were All Business......

..... instead, the drama today occurred once The Missus arrived home from work.....

..... I met her at the door, and she took one look at my 0-1.5" strawberry roan military fade and baulked noticeably...... I laughed.....

..... I took the rebuff in stride, of course, and went on through to make her a glass of wine...... but once we'd ensconced ourselves on the couch, she turned, looked at my bare noggin, reached up - almost as if to touch it - and said, "when, oh WHEN are you going to get a MODERN haircut!?".......

..... a modern haircut?!?....... good lord!...... what the hell is a Modern Haircut?....... I've had the same haircut for the past 18 years!!........ I'm thinking that a "modern" haircut is going to involve daubing some sort of "product" on my dwindling hair to create a "modern" man-scaped hair sculpture!....... and I'm just not sure that that'd be my style...... or lack of style, if you tend to lean that way........

..... sure, I can dress for an occasion when it arises.... I own lots of suits..... a tux...... hell, I even sport a silk Punjabi once in a while...... but day in and day out, I'm a boots, jeans, and tee-shirt guy....... the guy with short hair that doesn't even need combing....... so I can't help but wonder what wide, swinging tangent this "modern" haircut thing swung in on..........

... she must have been reading Cosmopolitan too much lately....... and become enamored of a meterosexual, or something...... I shall have to investigate and find out....... either way, the line "you look like you just stepped out of a Normal Rockwell painting" was uttered yet again..... as was, "you look like an extra for an old WWII film!".....

.... hey, who knew haircuts could be so unexpectedly controversial!?!......