Today looked to be like a busy day as I was going to get tags for the car I just bought off a roommate but due to some paperwork mixups I couldn’t get them. So I headed home and stopped to get a hair cut. Normally I use Quick Clips, in and out and on with life but this time I decided to hit up the salon near the house. I’ve passed it dozens of times, in fact every morning and afternoon and this is the first time I’ve gone in.
I go in and ask for a haircut, it’s empty so I get called back by a quiet gay stylist named James. He sits me down and asks what I want, I explain how my hair has a tendency to go “Mullet” if I don’t get it trimmed and how I like the overall style but it needs to get shorter and such.
I’m not much of a talker with my barber, they end up carrying the conversation so normally we settle into silence and I let them do their thing. James was good, his touch was soft and he paid amazing attention to detail, what some stylists might do in one snip, took him three or four. And he worked from back to front then side to side then back to front and side to side again.
Like I said, I don’t do stylists normally so this might be normal for places above Great Clips but it was excellent for me. And I soon found myself closing my eyes and just relaxing as he cut my hair. I’ve always enjoyed people playing with my hair, and while I don’t sit on his side of the fence, I did enjoy him cutting my hair - it was amazingly relaxing and I kept reaching the edge of sleep and coming back to conciousness.
With the haircut I also gave the goatee a trim much closer than usual. On the beard trimmer I usually use a 5 on it but this time I decided to try something new and went down to a 3. As such the beard is much less overt and as the subject says, I am officially “Mother tested, gay stylist approved.” As I was standing up he couldn’t help himself and proclaimed me to look fabulous with the haircut and then sent me on my way.
That’s a 3? It looks awfully short to be a 3, but maybe it’s just the picture. I always trim my goatee to a 3, and it’s alot thicker. Then again, maybe your hair is just really fine.
Yeah it’s a 3, but you’re right my hair is quite fine so it ends up being super soft on this setting. I don’t know if I’ll keep it this short or not. I might let it grow back out. We’ll see.
I tend to assume a lot of male stylists in more upscale places are gay, but this is from personal experience. I still miss the guy I went to in Los Angeles in the late 90s. It was fifty bucks a cut but he was wonderful at what he did. And definitely gay. Not that I care.
With one exception, everybody who has done my hair has been either a gay man or a woman. I don’t know if any of the women were gay. I would never bring it up, but I would probably assume a man doing my hair was likely gay unless proven otherwise, though it’s not like it actually matters.
My last male haircutter moonlighted as a lumberjack.
Okay, seriously, I go to the same guy whenever I’m in Albuquerque and need a haircut. Have for years. It’s great, I just kick back and he does his thing, and generally the haircut comes out looking good. Though there is this barber shop at I-25 and Jefferson I keep meaning to try once.
'Twas far from gay stylists I was reared so to speak. For nigh on twenty years, I went to Vinnie’s Barber Shop, where there were only two topics of conversation: golf, and …
Come to think of it, there was only one topic of conversation.
This is so weird, I went with my Mom to her hairstylist today and got a haircut from her stylist (Also an entirely open and salt of the earth gay guy.). My mom loves him and insisted that he cut my hair :o .
Really nice guy, he also did a good job on my hair.
BONUS, he gave me an invitation to his Birthday Bash! He said half of the Company would be there. Judging by the demographics that should be about 30 smoking hot single women, 30 gay guys, and me. My odds have never been better!
A similar experience yesterday. I had to go into town to buy some razors, so I stopped for a haircut. My usual (Filipino) guy was there, but due to the holiday the place was deserted. He had lots of time.
Nice haircut, then a straight-razor shave of my two-days growth. Hot towel, cold towel, some sort of magic moisturizer. Then a scalp massage, then then the face massage, then the back massage.
Ronincypberpunk, it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who will nod off while getting my hair cut. It’s just something about the fingers slipding through the wet hair and the snip of the scissors…
My favourite hairstyling story is from my mom, who went in a few months ago to be confronted by her hairstylist. “Lynn,” he said, “we have to do something about your hair.”
She knew the jig was up because that’s the same tone she uses with her less diligent patients.
