Barber Delivers Haircut and Unsolicited Life Assessment Simultaneously
A barbershop serving the Strand area has in recent months developed a reputation that extends beyond its technical proficiency with scissors to encompass what regular clients describe as “a full consultation that you did not book and cannot entirely avoid once it has begun.”
The owner and primary barber, a man of approximately sixty who has been cutting hair in the area for over two decades and who believes, not unreasonably, that this qualifies him to have views about the people whose hair he cuts, begins most appointments with a standard intake question — what are we doing today — and ends them, typically thirty to forty minutes later, somewhere considerably further along in the client’s interior life than the client had anticipated going on a Tuesday morning.
“He noticed I looked tired,” a client recalled. “I was just a bit tired. He asked if I’d been sleeping. I said mostly. He asked what was keeping me up. I said work, I suppose. He said: what is it about work specifically. I had a number two on the sides and a taper and I left having thought about what I actually want from my career.” The haircut, by universal agreement, is very good. The career guidance is unsolicited and variable in quality but delivered with such complete conviction that it tends to stay with you regardless.
A laminated sign near the mirror reads “price includes conversation.” Several clients believe this was added as a disclaimer. The barber says it was added as an invitation. Both interpretations are accurate.
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