Haircuts

Old joke:
Q. "What's the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut?"
A. "Two weeks."


I never heard that from my Dad, but he used to cut our hair up until the age of 10 or so. It was stressful all the way around, as he always cut it shorter than we wanted, and we whined as much as we could without getting swatted. (The electric razor didn't lend itself to stylish cuts, at least in the hands of an amateur.) On the occasions when we did go to the barber we asked for a "Princeton" -- do haircuts have names anymore?


Eventually Dad gave up, to everyone's relief. Thereafter I didn't have any special loyalty to a barber or a style, although I did let it get a little long in the late '70's. Whether at home or away at college I'd find a place that did an OK job, and go back every 8 weeks or so. I never liked a cut right after, but it was always fine 2 weeks later.


Cameroon was a little trickier, but a few female Peace Corps volunteers got reputations as decent haircutters, and they'd be pressed into service every few months when folks got together. Again, if you had reasonably low expectations you were fine.


In 20+ years back here in Chicago I've generally had two barbers: Ruffulo's, in the Lake Forest train station (close to work), and Rachel. Rach actually liked doing it for a while, as it gave her a chance to do something less boring with my hair, but she got pretty tired of it. If I sensed I was in for a long negotiation to get it cut at home I'd just go to Ruffulo's.


It's a classic barbershop, and the old guy, Lou (Ruffulo?) has been there forever. He's from Italy, and still has a strong accent. He'll ask, "So -- how you like?", and you'll describe what you want, and sometimes he'll say, "Ah, OK -- businessman haircut," and off he goes, and it turns out just fine. From my office I can leave at lunchtime, get a haircut and grab a carryout sandwich from somewhere, and get back in an hour.


The one concession I've made to age is having it left a little longer on top, where it's not quite as thick as it once was...


This past year I've picked up the family tradition and started cutting Conor's and Emmet's hair at home. (At a cookout a few weeks ago I found out there are a couple of other dads who still cut their boys' hair -- I thought I was the only one.) I have a similar kit to the one my Dad had, but it has various plastic clip-on guides that control how short the electric razor cuts. Unfortunately they only go from "short" to "really really short", limiting my tonsorial range.


Emmet seems to like the typical short razor cut, so he's easy. Conor wants it as long as possible -- a year ago I'd have ignored him and just given him a buzz cut, but I've been trying to accomodate. I find I have to use scissors instead of the razor, and go every 4-6 weeks instead of 8, but we seem to have found a happy medium of longer, reasonably neat hair. And I'm getting better at it, if I do say so myself. (I hope Conor would agree, but I'm not sure.)


How long will we keep doing this? I don't know -- if at some point they want to go to a real barber for a real haircut, and it seems important to them, I don't think I'll stand on stubbornness. But for now it's nice that we've worked it out among us, with compromise and adjusted expectations. After all, if it's a bad one, then in two weeks...


Pat