Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the pandemic has forced MJ and I to give each other haircuts. Technically not self-haircuts (those would be doing a haircut by myself with a mirror and an electric razor), but we bought a haircut cut from Costco for $50 and have already done 3 cuts that normally would cost around $30 with tip, so the kit has already paid for itself. It's also made me realize that.....I've been burnt on haircut cost in my life! The cheapest haircut I ever got was $7 (in LA Chinatown) but they can get up to $30, $40! And they don't really look that different to me. It's like buying the cheap $5 budget cheap wine vs. the sommelier recommended, vintage, bottled in Napa Valley in 1968 exclusive brand wine. I can't taste the difference!
Also, men's haircuts are less expensive than women's haircuts (another reason it's tough to be a woman and more costly to look nice). When MJ gets a haircut, I've been able to tell the intricacies that went into it and the distinctive style (and sometimes it's a perm).
I'm also counting my blessings that I still grow enough hair to worry about haircuts, as co-workers and friends my age tend to start losing their hair, or developing a bald start, or getting white hairs or a "salt-and-pepper look" of interspersed white and grey hair. I guess there's a preference thing where white hair could be seen as more sophisticated or distinctive like a "silver fox," but I personally prefer a full head of jet black hair for as long as I can have it, please. But that also means the hair becomes foliage pretty quickly, spreading over the ears and touching different areas of the skin enough to become a nuance, prompting me to get MJ to be my personal barber (Bobby's barber I call it).
I realize that the haircut industry is like the restaurant industry: supports workers who provide basic services and puts a large amount of the population without college education to work, a job that basically anybody can get and start working pretty quickly, although barbers need to do 100 haircuts apparently before they obtain their license, that fancy card they place at their work station when you sit down at the barbershop/ hair salon. Hair salons have become a major ideological battleground, regarding reopening and allowing them to conduct business v. shutting down due to fear of spreading the virus. The hair salons are usually the small businesses with individual small business owners who are hardest hit by the pandemic and didn't get bailed out by the government (the corporations did) and they employ workers who probably need the income the most (usually living paycheck to paycheck). So I do feel a little conflicted about taking away my contribution to that business, and I've had some decent conversations with barbers who do my hair (granted, they're probably chatting me up to earn a better tip, or as one downtown LA Supercuts employee brazenly tried to do, sell me a hair product), but especially in this pandemic, any social interaction has been a gift.
No comments:
Post a Comment