I just got my hair cut. My barbers last name was Mattila- a Finish name. I asked her if she knew where her name came from and she did. It brought back memories of a certain time in Finland when I got my hair cut.
When I was six years old mom would put give me a couple of dollars and send me down to the grocery store on my bike. I would buy milk or cheese and then stop at the triangle barber shop. I remember my toes would not touch the ground. There were lots of magazines and especially comic books. Comic books were a spare commodity in my house. I was young enough that I was just starting to read and comic books were way above "run Jane run." I was careful to appear that I was reading although I didn't understand but a word or two. This I did by turning the pages slowly. Two, what appeared to me then old men were the barbers. There was always a wait for me to catch up on batman, superman or spiderman.
When I was fourteen and we had moved back to Salem from Arizona we spotted a barber that advertised haircuts for a dollar. My younger brother Dirk and Dad went to the barber. The haircut Dirk got consisted of a shave on each side of the head with a long length of hair running right down the middle. Back then in 1964 there were a few mohawk haircuts. Dirk had his mohawk although not intentional. When he came home he was howling. When he slinked into the house a neighbor kids saw him and yelled out "neat haircut." Wow that really did it. He never seemed to care before but the haircut really set him off. When mom saw him she told my dad to march right out and get it fixed. Well it proved more difficult to fix then they imagined. He came back with a butch.
My first haircut in Finland was my most memorable. I was in Turku Finland. My companion and I walked into the barber and lo and behold it was a woman- actually a young girl my age. Not any girl but a beautiful girl. I had no idea that girls cut hair, it was a new thing for me- in fact in Finland the only barbers were women. For the next half hour I was worried I was breaking the mission rules. After that experience I was careful that my barber was an older woman.
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3 comments:
The only barber I ever knew was Mom. She always hated cutting my hair but somehow I always convinced her it was a worthwhile endeavor. I remember one time she cut Annelisa's and something went disastrously wrong. In order to self correct, Annelisa hair got shorter and shorter. Before we knew it, she had a pretty short boy haircut. Annelisa cried. Even though we were in our peak of sibling rivalry, I remember feeling genuinely sad for her and making the conscience decision not to make fun of her. I don't remember if I was true to that feeling or not.
Well, after taking six inches off of Katia's hair and incurring the wrath of my entire household, I will never ever cut anyone's hair again.
Perfect Look in Salem was always the worst but chepaest place to get your hair cut. It was kind of like the wild cat that keeps scratching but you still try to pet it.
I'm so glad you're posting to this blog Dad! I'll come here often now.
Well, I am a Barber by name, but a graphic artist by profession. Check my MySpace for a pic of my wildest haircut: http://www.myspace.com/dirksep67
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