Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

For 4 years I cut the boys’ hair myself, with a good set of clippers in the kitchen.  It was easy and they looked pretty cool with little high and tights.  But then the day came when my wife said “They should have a real haircut.”  I knew she didn’t consider what I was doing real but I thought I could get away with it for at least another few years.  No luck.  Now the story gets interesting.  A friend of mine did SEO work for a hair stylist here in Boulder and, as payment, the stylist offered his services.  This was not any normal stylists either.  This guy is one of the most highly regarded stylists around.  He runs his own hair styling school and national seminars.  He charges 70 dollars for a men’s haircut.  This is where my kids went to get their first real haircuts.  The boys came out of there looking all styled and perfect which I thought was pretty cool.  They continued to get perfect haircuts for a whole year until our friendly stylist went on indefinite sick leave, and we had to go someplace else.  I’ll admit to being a little disappointed that there were going to be no more free haircuts, but I was also somewhat relieved.  Shouldn’t all guys have the experience of a barber shop?  I think so.

Noble Oklahoma

I went to the University of Oklahoma.  When I got there I joined ROTC and joined the drill team.  So that we would all look alike we went to get our hair shaved off.  The upperclassmen took us to a barber shop in Noble Oklahoma that was run by a guy named Garland.  I came to Oklahoma in the first place from Massachusetts and, before that, California.  I walked into the place wearing flip flops and shorts.  They had never met me before, but they made me feel right at home – by relentlessly making fun of me.  This was a place where the average age of the clientele was about 60, and they all wore jeans or slacks and cowboy boots or work boots.  There was a spittoon in the corner that actually got use.  I continued to get my haircut with Garland even after I quit ROTC.  I got my haircut with him every month until graduation and I don’t think he ever knew my name – he referred to me as flip-flop boy.  You might think that would irritate me.  It didn’t.  I had never been in a place like that before, and I enjoyed seeing people interact with such genuine good natured fun.

It’s a Shame

It’s a shame that I don’t see many barber shops like that anymore.  I would like my boys to get that experience.  Sure, there are Barber shops, but I haven’t found any with the same character as Garland’s.  Garland’s was a place where men could talk about men things and act like pigs.  I learned a lot as a college kid interacting with a bunch of old farmers and ranchers with whom I had almost nothing in common.  I didn’t learn anything about farming or ranching, but I did learn a lot about the lives of all those guys.  They were all much older than me and they all taught me something I would never have learned otherwise.  Now I have to decide if I should cut the boys’ hair myself again or if I should look for a barber shop.  I found one here in downtown Boulder but it costs 20 bucks (Garland’s was 6) and it doesn’t look all that manly.  Hmmm, what to do…

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