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Gary had been told by his dad the night before that he was to get a haircut the next day, which was a Friday. And if Gary ‘forgot’, he would take him on Saturday when he went. His dad left him $25.00 to get it done. His mom reminded him the next morning and he stuffed the money in his jeans as he went out the door. A haircut, yeah, yeah. ‘I don’t need a haircut. I need to be left alone. There’s nothing wrong with my hair the way it is. No one has ever complained that it is long. What’s the big deal.’ He soon met up with his friend Matt. Matt said he was going down to the city pool to spend the day and swim. Gary raced back into the house to get his swim suit and a towel. He decided to just wear the swimsuit and put the jeans in his sports bag with the towel. He could get his hair cut later in the afternoon. While he had money in his wallet, enough to get in the pool, he had stuffed the money for his haircut in the jeans pocket. In his hurry he didn’t see it fall out onto the floor and flip under the bed. He just grabbed up his bag and went. It was only $3.00 to get into the pool and at lunch they got a couple of hot dogs, some chips and soda. That left him with only $4:00 of his own money. That was ok, he thought, he still had the money his dad had given him. A little after 3:00 he told Matt he was going to have to go. He showered and changed to his jeans and tee shirt. Outside the building it was 10 blocks to the salon where his mom sometimes took him to get his hair trimmed. About halfway there he put his hands in his pockets, the money wasn’t there. ‘Oh God! What happened to the money. The bags were locked up, so no one could have gotten in and stolen it. He must have dropped it somewhere.’ He used his cell phone and called his mom to see if she was still at work, she wasn’t. Now he began to panic. There wasn’t enough time to get home and get back to the salon, even if he had a ride. The place took their last customer at 4:30; only on special occasions, like before the prom, did it stay open later and for that you had to have an appointment. Gary ran for home, maybe just maybe, there was a barbershop not far from the house that was open ‘til 5:00. They might be able to give him a trim, if he could find the money. It was 4:30 when he got to the house. He was out of breath and had to go around back to get in. Inside he checked the kitchen and looked where he might have set it down. He looked all over his room but didn’t see that it had tumbled back under the bed. He heard the car pull in the drive and his dad came in the house. His head was hanging as he went to greet his father. His dad didn’t say anything, just asked him how his day had been. Gary said he’d gone to the pool with Matt. Gary was nervous and edgy all evening. His dad never said anything although his mom gave him a look that said ‘I reminded you this morning’. When he went to bed he couldn’t get to sleep. Maybe his dad would forget about it. Not likely. He tossed and turned all night, finally falling to sleep out of exhaustion. The family had breakfast together the next morning. Mom and his sister were going grocery shopping. "Gary, you are coming with me," his dad said in a calm, matter of fact voice. His mom and sister had already gone out to the car. He had gone to his room. His dad stuck his head in the door. "Change into your khaki dockers and wear a polo shirt. Gary looked much like his dad, Brad. They were tall and athletic. Light brown hair framed a handsome face. He’d never seen his dad without the close on the sides haircut, the top combed over in a perfect part, although every couple of years he got a flat top before they went on vacation. He changed into his good clothes. There was no point in arguing. His dad never put up with any argument or back talk. It came, Gary was sure, from his days in the Marine Corps when he was a Sergeant.

His dad got out the Mustang convertible and put the top down. He had already told Gary he could drive it to school starting the next year. Today though, Gary sat in the passenger seat. He liked his dad and had always been ‘his boy’ rather than ‘his mother’s boy’. The only thing they differed on was his hair. His dad had talked to him the day he turned 13 about being responsible and accepting the consequences for his actions or inactions. He was never mean or hard on Gary, just firm. They often played ball together and now that he was older they even went jogging together. Once in a while his dad would take just him up to the lake to go canoeing or fishing. He enjoyed the wind in his hair as they drove into town. They parked near the barbershop, his dad raised the top back up. As they walked to the barbershop his dad asked him how he was going to get it cut today. "I guess I’ll get it cut the same way you do today dad." "You’re sure?" "Yes sir. You gave me enough warning and mom even reminded me yesterday and I forgot and was careless too," he confessed. "I guess it’s time." His dad smiled. This was Brad’s regular barbershop. Milton was his barber and he always waited until his chair was free. Gary preceded his father through the door, the little bell tinkling. The center chair was empty and there were no other customers. It was a younger barber, about 30 maybe. Milton had told him there was a new barber coming in that had experience cutting hair on a military base in North Carolina. Brad introduced Gary to Milton, who had paused long enough to greet Brad and tell him he was next. He told Gary to go ahead and have a seat, Jack, the new barber would take charge of his hair for the day. Jack smiled and shook Gary’s hand. "Get settled and I’ll get you ready." Gary sat in the chair. It had been years since he had sat in one of the big chrome and leather black chairs; he’d probably been in a booster seat then. The salon had those small colorful chairs that weren’t quite so comfortable, but took up less space. He sat back in the chair and waited.

Jack took a strip of paper from the roll and put it around his neck then swirled out the navy blue cape and fastened it closely over that. He used the handle on the side to raise up the chair to the proper height. "Well Gary. How are we getting it cut today?" Gary looked towards his dad. "I’ll have it cut the same way my dad’s getting his cut today." His dad hadn’t sat down yet and took a few steps closer. "I’m getting my flat top today, close on the sides. A high and tight would look good on him, don’t you think?" Jack nodded his head. "One high and tight flat top coming up." Gary gulped, and almost said no, but his dad was looking him right in the eye. He took a deep breath and said, "Make it a real close high and tight. As close as you can get it."

Milton had finished with his customer and Brad took a seat in his chair. "Flat top today Milton." "It’s been a couple of years since you had it cut that way Brad. Special occasion?" "No. Just going on vacation next week. Going to take the family to D.C. to see the sites. Gary and his sister are old enough now to enjoy it. A short haircut will be cooler and easier to take care of." He didn’t say anything to Milton about ‘close high and tight’ on his flat top. But Gary was too busy watching his hair fall to notice.

Jack saw Gary jump when he snapped on the clippers. He had placed a guard over the blades that would leave the hair about 3/4 of an inch long. Gary sat as if frozen when the guard touched down right at the front of his head. Jack had combed his hair out and then combed it back over the top, holding it there with the comb. The professional quality clippers cut a path quickly across the top of Gary’s head. A great spill of hair slid behind the chair onto the floor. It took Jack about 10 passes to reduce the top. Gary’s hair still hung down on the sides nearly to his shoulders. The clippers were turned off and Jack removed the guard. The clippers snapped back on and Gary could feel the vibration as the blades buzzed over his sideburns nearly to the top. Jack went over it again but turned the clippers around the top of his ear, then up. The next cut was up the side of his neck towards the top. At the end of each push, Jack flipped the cut locks over Gary’s shoulder into his lap. Standing behind the chair, Jack pushed Gary’s head forward until his chin nearly rested on his chest. Beginning right at the cape, he buzzed the hair all the way to the top, all across the back of his head. Then it was around to the other side. Jack raised Gary’s head and pushed it gently towards the other side. Again starting in front of his ear, he mowed the sides down. Now the hair on the sides and back were perhaps and eighth of an inch long or closer. Jack turned off the clippers and brushed Gary’s head and shoulders clear of loose hair. Jack turned the chair around so that Gary could see how it was coming. He was startled to see almost bare skin and his ears which were usually covered over. Before he could say anything, Jack turned the chair back around and picked up a new pair of clippers. These were red and if Gary could have seen the top it said "Wahl, 000000, Balding Clippers". "Sit up straight now," Jack said as he adjusted the chair down a couple of notches, then positioned Gary’s head looking straight forward with his chin slightly tucked in. "Don’t move." Gary held his breath and sat like a statue. Jack gave a little laugh, "you can breathe. Just don’t move your head from side to side or look up or down." He began using only a long, thin black comb, cutting the top flat. He raised the hair up with the comb then ran the clipper blades across the top. To Gary, it felt like the comb was resting on his head, which it was after the first pass at the front. At the center, Jack just held up the side and zipped across the top of the comb. "That’s about got it for the top. Now well take the sides down to the high and tight." Hell, Gary thought it was already ‘high and tight’. With no guard on the 000000 blades, there was mostly skin left behind. Bare skin. Only when the blades neared the top did Jack make use of the comb to create just a slight graduation to the flat top. First one side then the other, each pushed over a little to make it easier to push the clippers up. Once more at the back, Gary’s chin was pushed towards his chest. This time there was no comb as the whirring blades passed up and over the top. Three passes from the base of his neck over the top. Then Jack positioned Gary’s head again and began going over the top, the blades resting right on the skin, raising only slightly when they passed the center going to the front. The longest hair in front was perhaps ½ inch now. Making sure that Gary’s head was positioned so that the top was level, Jack began to shorten the flat top even more. He used the comb as before. Now the front was a little less than the half inch and there was a bare strip from the center of his head back and over to the base of his neck. Satisfied that it was good, Jack turned off the clippers and set them on the counter. He vigorously brushed off any remaining lose hair then unfastened the cape, folding it down into Gary’s lap; he removed the paper strip and threw it in the trash. Jack used a towel run under hot water and wrung out to wipe off Gary’s head. A small dry towel was tucked into his collar around his neck. Gary heard a whirring and then felt warm lather being spread over his sideburns, around his ears and across the sides down his neck. Jack took out a wicked looking old straight edge folding razor. He stropped it to a keen edge. "Now’s the time to sit real still. We don’t want to spill any blood or lose an ear." Pushing his head slightly over. Jack began at Gary’s sideburn, or at least where there would be one. There wasn’t much hair stubble to remove, but it was part of the barbershop experience. Jack masterfully scraped over the sideburns up to about an inch above the top of the ear. Next he shaved all the way around Gary’s head at that same line. I’m not sure you could really see the difference, but you could feel that it was perfectly smooth below that line after Jack was finished, and like real fine sandpaper above it. Jack used the still warm, damp towel to clean Gary’s head off, then the dry towel was pulled from his collar and gone over that. Jack lowered the chair a little more. Next Gary’s hair, what was left, was massaged with a finger of crew wax. A stiff brush made it stand up straight and stiff. Jack took out his scissors and comb. He went around the top, snipping here and there, evening up the whole until it was all the same level. Jack put the comb back in his pocket and the scissors on the counter. A little talcum powder was brushed across the back of his head and neck with a soft wispy brush. The cape was removed from Gary’s lap, the chair was lowered all the way down and Gary stepped down. "You look as good as one of my Marines at Camp Le Jeune," said Jack.

Gary’s dad, whose haircut had been finished in shorter time, stood up. "Now, that’s a good looking haircut. Jack, you did a great job. We’ll be gone for two weeks on vacation, but I’ll bring Gary back the day we get back. I think he’ll be keeping it just like this." Gary might would have objected if he’d been paying attention, but he was too busy, looking this way and that at his haircut. He looked at his dad. Brad had gotten a flat top, but it wasn’t as close as Gary’s. Again, it was his responsibility, hadn’t he said to "make it as close as you can". He couldn’t believe how close it was to being all off. It didn’t look bad, but it was going to take some getting used to. His dad paid for their haircuts and gave both barbers a generous tip. Jack gave Gary the newly opened jar of crew wax, "get yourself a good boar’s bristle brush and you can keep it standing up. It only takes a little finger of it. Don’t use too much, that’s just wasting it."

They walked to the little corner drug store where his dad bought him the hair brush and two larger tubes of sun screen, SPF 30. "Put some of that on your head or it will burn. It won’t take long until it’s tanned enough to use a smaller SPF." They put the top down on the Mustang and his dad let Gary drive. He was sure if anyone saw him they wouldn’t recognize him. They were used to seeing him with baggy jeans and a tee shirt that was over sized and riding or carrying his skateboard. Brad called his wife who was finished with the grocery shopping and was on her way home to put it away. He told her he was going to get Gary some clothes for the trip and he would meet them at the Mall about 11:30 for lunch. She thought her husband sounded really happy about something, probably he had made Gary get his hair cut short. It had been getting a bit straggly, but ..., oh well. Gary would get over it. His dad got Gary 5 pair of docker casual pants and as many button up sport shirts. Gary was used to wearing sport shoes, his dad got him a pair of loafers to wear and some socks. "Better start breaking them in now," Brad told his son. "You don’t want to have blisters walking around DC." His mom would have walked right past Gary; he’d been wearing those baggy jeans when she left this morning; now he had on a nice polo shirt and a ‘short, really short’ haircut. She’d seen Brad with a flat top before. Now it made him look younger and she liked that. "Wow! You both look so nice. Young man, you look really good, kinda like your dad when I first met him. I hope you keep it cut short like that. It really does look good on you." "Don’t worry mom. Dad has already set me up with the barber. And, dad’s been talking to me about going to college under the Marine ROTC program. I’ll think about it." Although, it sounded like he had more fun as a Sergeant than an officer would have. His sister wanted to rub his head. He told her to go ahead, but not to mash the top down. She just wanted to feel the back and sides. Gary showed his mom the new clothes dad had bought for him. She said it was a good thing he was old enough to learn to do his own laundry.

After the vacation, Brad let Gary take the car to the barbershop. There he waited for Jack to finish his customer. "Back already I see." "Yes sir. Ready to get it freshened up." "It’s tanned up real good. With Marines I never worried about how their heads would look when I was finished, they got it cut how they wanted it. You have a really well shaped head and the flat top looks good on you. How long do you think you’ll keep it this way?" Gary told Jack about his plans to go to college and then go into the regular Marine Corps as an officer. "So I guess I’ll keep it this way for the next 30 or so years." It took only about half the time to shorten the top and shave the sides to the original high and tight. Jack told him he should come in every week and he would do it up for half the price. Which would make it cost the same as if he came in every two weeks. Gary said it was a deal.

Now that he was back from vacation, Gary went out to run with his old friends. They were amazed at the haircut and his new look. His dad had gotten him some more jeans, not so baggy and some tee shirts that fit which he now kept tucked into his pants. His best friend Matt said he might would get his hair cut short, although maybe not shaved like Gary’s. Gary had found the original $25.00 that had rolled under his bed when he started cleaning out his old clothes that he wasn’t going to be wearing any more. He told Matt to come on, he’d show him where he got his hair cut. It only took about a half hour on their skateboards to reach the barber shop. As it happened, Jack had just returned from lunch and didn’t have a customer.

Gary cajoled Matt into going in. "I’ll pay for it," he told him. "I don’t know. I just said I would think about it. Not that I was going to do it." "Oh, come on Matt. You’re not chicken are you? Just get it cut short. It’s so much easier to take care of." Matt mumbled that ‘he’s crazy’, but he went in the shop. "What’s up Gary? You’re not due until Friday." "I brought my friend Matt. He wants to get his mop chopped off. Not," he said looking meaningfully at Matt, "like mine. Maybe like when you turned me around the first time to show me after you had cut the long hair off." "Come on Matt, have a seat up here. We’ll make it short and then see if you want it any shorter." Matt got in the barber chair. Gary sat down on the seat to watch. He gave Matt a thumbs up. Jack got Matt settled and kept up a constant talk and questions to set him easy. A flat top would look good on Matt too he thought, but he wouldn’t push it. Let the boy decide for himself. When Jack turned back to pick up the clippers, Matt got this strange look on his face. His thought, which he hadn’t before was, ‘my folks are going to flip out’. There was no way he could get down and back out now. With the cape in place, Jack combed out Matt’s hair. He put a guard over the blades that would leave the hair about an inch and a half long. Matt froze when the clippers snapped on and began to buzz. His brown hair fell in a slithering sheet behind the chair. When the top was finished, Jack turned off the clippers and removed the guard, replacing it with the smallest guard he had. This would leave the hair about 1/4 of an inch long. Jack was careful to make the hair fall behind the chair, unlike his enjoyment at seeing Gary’s face when he let it all slide into his lap. With the sides, back and top done, the clippers were turned off and Jack brushed the loose hair from Matt’s head. "Are you ready to see?" He turned the chair around. Matt sat up straighter and began to turn his head side to side so he could see how it looked. His mom and dad were sure going to be surprised when he got home. Jack used the brush to make a part and then combed it to one side. Matt liked that look. "Just a little shorter on the sides maybe," he said to Jack. Jack turned the chair back around and winked at Gary. "Shorter on the sides coming up." He took the guard off the clippers and began to take Matt’s sideburns completely off, leaving only a shadow of them behind. Then starting at zero on the neck he mowed the sides shorter, raising the blades and then using the comb as he neared the top. He went over the top again, leaving it longer in the front but thinned from there back and a little shorter. All done, the clippers turned off, Jack turned the chair around so that Matt could see how it looked. He brushed the loose hair away and added some tonic so that it would lay down well. "I think that’ll do it," Matt said. He seemed to relax into the chair. Jack turned the chair back around and folded the cape down into Matt’s lap. The strip of paper was removed. Jack didn’t shave around Matt’s ears and the back of his neck, instead he used the edging clippers. The sideburns were now gone, just as if they had been shaved. Then the fuzz on the back of his neck was taken off. Jack used a warm, slightly damp towel to finish. He lowered the chair and Matt stepped down. Gary went to pay and asked Jack if he could get a bottle of the tonic. Jack told him to get a tube of brylcream instead. It wasn’t greasy and would make Matt’s hair shine. "Don’t use gel. It will make your hair look and feel stiff. You want it to look natural." Matt thanked him and started for the door. Jack told him he could come back anytime, and if he decided to get a flat top, he would do the first one for free. "I’ll think about it," Matt said. Matt continued to look at his reflection in every window they passed. His haircut and then Gary’s flat top. He shook his head. Maybe next time.

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