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barber shop
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The
Good Old Way
Shove in the door. Guys all around. Lively talk in the air. Football on the screen. The barber in the back motions to you and gestures at his empty chair. You slide into the leather seat. Neckcloth, and then the cape. He inverts a bottle of red tonic over your head, holding the bottle's neck between two fingers, shaking the red oil out, working it vigorously in with the other hand.
"The
usual today?"
he asks rhetorically, putting down the bottle and selecting
a comb from a jar of disinfectant. "You bet," you say with a
sure nod, glancing up to catch a tackle while he picks out a
part with the comb. Then he starts with the clippers. One
hand firmly shoves your head forward, while the other
applies the blade to your neck, moving upward from the nape.
There is some movement on top with a comb and clippers, then
your head is shoved sideways as he mows out whitewalls
around your ear.
As
you
watch
another play,
the buzzing stops and the whirr of the lather machine takes
over. He pulls down the neck cloth and rubs the lather into
your neck, smearing it up and over your ear, smoothing it
around the sideburn with his thumb. Another generous portion
goes up the other side, and the river of heat leaves the
smell of soap in the air.
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Then
you hear
the scraping of the strop. A cold blade begins nibbling by
your ear, carving out the sidewall, while the other hand
stretches the skin. You watch another play. From the TV, the
cheers of the crowd, and then the sound of water in the
sink. A wet, cold cloth roughly rubs the lather from around
your ears and then your neck. The cooling, stinging splash
of aftershave follows, with its pungent aroma. Then a
dusting with talc, as the powder briefly clouds the air.
Now
a
towel is tucked in
where the neck cloth was. Another bottle is inverted over
your head, worked in generously like the tonic, but more
thoroughly. The barber moves your head forward and side to
side, until every hair is soaked. Then there's a warmer
splash of water, and he begins lathering the scalp. More
water, more kneading --"scalp manipulations" they're called
in the Barber School text book-- until your head is a mass
of lather. One soaped-up hand firmly holds your head while
the other scrubs it with a small brush.
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