The Haircut

The Haircut

I asked someone to take pictures of me before and after. Somehow in the after process, the pics were erased. But at least I take “after” pictures again.
I have been getting pretty shaggy for lack of a haircut. Finding a new barber is perhaps not as traumatic for guys as it is girls, but we still give it a lot of thought. I do not go for the shorn look of the Marines on base here. On a Marine base, getting a non-military haircut is difficult for a civilian. I did not want to go to the base barber shop because they give Marines the close shorn military cut and I mean close. Those haircuts look as if your head has been shaved. If you go in and say “scoshi” meaning a little, you get a little left instead of a little off. Most civilians go to the MX beauty shop. But because the Navy Ball and the Marine Ball are both coming up soon, I can't get near the place. So I looked for alternatives.
First, I looked for guys with good haircuts that were non-military. Now being a guy, I did not go up to every guy that had good haircut and ask him where he got it. That is not the kind of question guys ask guys. And also, the word would quickly get around the base about the nut asking about haircuts. And you know how the gossip game goes, it would be so distorted that I would probably be called in and be counseled regarding the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
So, I settled on asking Corey, the AT (Administration Technologist) guy at our school, because he seemed to be the most non-threatening person I could ask. After all, most of the Marines here carry loaded guns. So, I asked Corey where he got his haircut. He said he went to several places including a good barber off base. He told me, "The barber is deaf but he does a good haircut. You go in and look at a series of pictures and pick out the style you want.”
“Well, that sounds all right,” I replied, “Because there could not be much difference communicating with a deaf barber than trying to communicate with any other Japanese person using my limited Japanese.”
So I got directions and headed out on Mike. I am going to pass the directions along to you in case you want to go there for a haircut. You leave the base by the main gate and go to Four Corners. At Four Corners, you turn right. The barber shop is about one block up the street. You can’t miss it because it is the first barber shop on the left. Now I can hear all the comments flying around like, ”He will never find it because he doesn’t know his right from his left”. Or, “Stan is directional dyslexic.” Or the really bad one, “He can’t find his way out of a telephone booth.” Well, to counter these rumors, I must admit that I am somewhat directional dyslexic. But I am not afraid to admit it. I know I have the problem and I am working hard to overcome it. I have learned from my DD support group that it is a very common malady but few will admit it. My DD group? Oh, well it meets once a week at the chapel or the high school depending on what moon phase is because the moon governs the way we navigate. We can’t use right or left turn directions because the Japanese guides hired for us have to leave the base at five. So, we point ourselves at the moon and shove off until we bump into a building. If it is the correct one, we go in. If it is not the right one, we back and have another go at it. Howling is optional. But under no circumstances are you allowed to stop and ask directions. Our DD group has about 25 members. Most are men, but there are one or two women who came to a few meetings. Most women are eventually expelled for violation of the asking directions rule.
Back to the real point of this story. So, I did find my way to the barber shop and went in. There are two chairs and one barber. Go figure. The man is very nice and acknowledged me with a glance when I came in. Remember, he is deaf and he does not speak either. I wait and look through the magazines, all in Japanese, trying to look as if I can actually understand the Kangi in them. But I am really looking around the shop. Since my pictures were accidentally erased, I will have to paint you a mental picture.
The door going in is glass much like the shop doors in the USA, but narrower and shorter. Most doors in the US are 6’8” in height. The doors in Japan are measured metrically and are shorter than 6’8”. The inside of the shop is painted in plain, drab even, beiges and brown tones. The barber chairs are covered with grey naugahide. The floor is made of old worn beige linoleum tiles. Tufts of hair, all black with a sprinkling of grey, is on the floor under the number one chair. I take a seat in the waiting area on a low bench also covered in naugahide, but red in color. There are shelves separating the cutting area from the waiting area giving the customer in the chair a modicum of privacy. On the shelves are shampoos, conditioners, and other hair products. Some of the labels are in English. There is a beautiful woven bamboo plant in the corner. I am assuming he did this himself because as I went in I parked Mike next to several pots of very healthy plants.
At the moment he is cutting a women’s hair. She is covered with a black barber’s cape. He is almost finished with her. He completes her cut and takes off the cape. She gives her hair a final adjustment and then thanks the barber. She pays, they both bow, and she leaves. Now it is my turn to get in the chair.
He directs me to the chair and covers me with a bright green cloth. I wonder, but can’t ask, if the green designates a man is in the chair or if it is the Guigin color. He gets the picture chart and asked me using hand gestures if I want the back blocked or tapered. I chose blocked. Then as he was getting started, I changed my mind to tapered. I gestured to look at the picture again and chose tapered cut. Before he put the green cape on me, he turned my shirt collar down and put powder on my neck to dry it. He then took a strip of stretchy paper and put it around my neck. Then he tucked a towel inside the back of my shirt, covered me with the green cape and cinched everything down using Velcro. There was no way any stray hairs could get down the back of my neck. He started the cut by combing up all those shaggy stray hairs and used an electric sheers to cut them off. Then he got out the scissors and cut the rest. Every hair was evenly cut a quarter of an inch with every stroke of the scissors until he was satisfied that all was even. Then he massaged something into my hair and blow dried it. But wait, there’s mo. He mixed up hot lather in a shaving mug and lathered the back of my neck and my sideburns area. Then with a straight razor, he shaved me. One of my favorite parts of a haircut is getting the hair that grows down my back shaved off. When I go a long time between cuts, I get to feeling like a werewolf. After the shaving, he prepared a hot towel and cleaned my head and neck. Hot towels feel so luxurious. He removed the cape, and held up a folding mirror in back so I could see the back of my head. It looked perfect to me so I nodded, and the haircut came to an end. I got up, he bowed. I paid him with a ¥5000 note. He gave me ¥3100 in change. No, I did not tip. Tipping is not socially acceptable in Japan. He bowed again, I bowed and then I left.
I will be going back. I was very pleased with the cut. I will be putting some “after” pictures on the blog along with this. I hope this haircut episode did not drag on too long.
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