The other day during my lunchbreak at work I decided to go get a haircut at a nearby barber shop. I went to this semi-ghetto place on Sherman Way in Van Nuys. I had been there once before, and they gave me a decent haircut that time, so I figured why not return.
There were 2 barbers there currently working on other customers, so I had to patiently wait my turn. After taking an inordinate amount of time to complete a generic Mexican gangster-esque spikey cut, it was finally my turn. I sat down in the chair, and this tatted up and pierced mofo asked me what kinda cut I’d like.
I told him what I wanted and then he began the process. I should note that my chair was facing away from the mirror as he was cutting. About mid-way through the cut, I asked, “Could you spin me around so I could see what it looks like?” He replied somewhat defensively, “Why, do you think I’ll cut too much?” I said, “Nah, I just wanna see how it looks so far.”
He spun me around, and I saw that things were moving ahead smoothly. After I glanced in the mirror at myself for a moment, he quickly spun the chair back around again — away from the mirror. SO STRANGE. Maybe this guy sees himself as an artist, and doesn’t want to reveal the final work until it’s complete or something.
I see myself as paying customer who should be able to see his hair as it’s being cut. I was also a somewhat frightened customer too —- so I kept my mouth shut, waited ’til he was done, and then quietly left.
Tags: artist, barber, customer, gangster, haircut, Mexican, Sherman Way, spikey, Van Nuys
