esrosedotblog

Have I mentioned that I am growing my hair out long?

Again.

The goal is to resume the pony tail that I had for a long time, many years ago. And, of course, to avoid haircuts.

I do not like haircuts. I remember my first one. Really.

Mr. Keitzig, a two chair shop with one barber, the other chair was the waiting chair.

Then there was Edgar Trentesseau a closet queen with a fondness for dashing off mid hair cut for a quick gin pick me up. Vodka was not around much back then.

Then there were others. No one bad, particularly, but no one good either.

I remember my first visit to a stylist, the end of barbers.

That was the first guy who shampooed me. Nice. But I still am not sure it is necessary.

There were the razor cuts, the layered cuts, the buzz cuts. For awhile I had my own shaver/trimmer.

But the best cut of all has always been the no-cut. Long hair.

Mine is pretty good. For one thing it is wavy just like my Dad's. That is a plus right there. The Dad part. Then wavy. It curls in back. I love that.

If you detect more than an average amount of narcissism here you are correct. I plead guilty. My mirror and I are old friends. And my mirror does like long hair.

It is long enough now that some of it reaches my shoulder. There is very little grey in it. Amazing.

I am still balding on top but the bald long hair look is big on the west coast. Show business people, some business types who have that silver fox thing going.

I am near pony tail length. It will be another few weeks before I can really get it on and keep it on.

Hey. Old folks need projects. And the more they are harmless to others and irrelevant the better. It fits right into the "don't be seen" ethos for the senior set.

Incidentally, that is not me in the photo. That is someone else who I admire. For different reasons. And he has a pony tail too. At least there is something in common.

Labels: hair

I went to the barber today.

Actually, I probably went to a stylist. I don't really know the difference any more.

This guy is a friend so it is relatively painless. An important factor. I am haircut/barber/stylist averse. I am not sure why. It might verge on a phobia. Listed in that personality disorder list. But it is not. I just looked to see.

It is just common garden variety resistance to sitting still and letting someone else have at me.

I have cut my own hair off and on for much of my life. All the way from a mild buzz cut to the closely shaved, nearly bald look.

But now, with a lot of actual baldness, it really looks better to let as much hair as will grow up there. Today, for example, my friend took nothing off the top. Not a lot to take. Leave it alone.

I did better than usual. I got there early and walked around a bit. Found a new restaurant. He is right in the middle of town. Bided my time. And, when he arrived, my boredom level was high enough that I jumped into the chair gladly.

During the haircut, another guy I know came in and the chit chat distracted nicely.

When I was a kid, I went to a barber that was right in the neighborhood. Edgar Trentaseau. Belgian. He had an old photo of the King of Belgium in the shop. Edgar would not do short cuts. I was about eight when I asked for one and got refused. That, eventually, did him in.

I went around then, moved to the other barber, a bit further away. But bike able. Mr. Kitzig. I remember that he had a lot of fish and game magazines. Something new for me. Edgar was a Saturday Evening Post man.

Over the years, I have tried to like many barbers. Then stylists. Not a good take.

I think that I am finally settled with this guy. He is cheerful. He does not take me too seriously. And he does the hair the way he wants and it actually looks pretty good. He more or less ignores my input but I like him well enough and he likes me.

What else could I be looking for?

Labels: hair

I went to get a haircut yesterday.

I had been doing it myself for quite awhile.

It started over some personal shit with my old hair cutter. I told myself that it was just that I wanted it short and so I went for the shaver.

And that is true. I did like it short. And then, recently, I was done with it.

I let it grow some and went to a whatever we call them now.

I went to a barber until I was in my thirties. Then I went to Norman who was a stylist. At that time, hair was a big deal. Not because it was long. We were over that. But because hair was a big deal.

Everyone had to have razor cuts or something. Barber barbers were left in the dust.

This is also the era when hair care products became something one bought in a shop not in the drug store.

Then for me it was all over. I had enough. I went to the buzz like a lot of other men. I did have relapses from time to time but basically I do not like anyone fucking with my hair. No reason. I don't like it. Personal space maybe. I don't know.

A loss of control? Maybe.

A bit too much in the direction of a femme outlook? Low on butch. Maybe but I don't think so.

I just don't like anyone messing with me.

But I got to know this guy and felt more secure. He did a good job. Listened and "did what he was told". I suppose it has to do also with the fact that I have thinning hair. That sounds better than balding, eh? It is actually pattern baldness. A retrenchment.

So anything that makes me look a little less bald and a little more hirsute, is good.

I am happy.

Labels: hair

HEAD CASE

No movie today.

A haircut and then off to the dentist for a cleaning.

Petsmart in between.

I had it all planned out. Then the dentist called and bumped me 20 minutes later than my appointment.

Dead time. Awful prospect.

But then, there was major construction on Ramon, the main way there.

And someone called who needed me right then.

When that was all over, I parked at the dentist and watched them demolish an apartment building across the street that had been condemned after a fire.

The fire company had come after the "accidental" fire was out and set it all ablaze again for practice.

I didn't see that part.

By the time all that was done, it was time to go in and have my teeth cleaned.

Much improvement in my "oral hygiene" which I directly attribute to the WaterPic aqua flosser I bought a year and a half ago.

All was fine with the hair too. We didn't do much to it, let it grow longer (it is pretty long already) and he shaped and tweaked it on the sides where, for some reason, the hair grows faster.

Mostly, I suppose, because it doesn't grow much on the top, by comparison.

That's the way it is with pattern baldness.

I have been trying to think of the name of that hairstyle we all laugh at, kind of redneck, where the hair on the sides is shorter than the back and it all sort of flops around. Not a wiffle.

Yes. I've got it. The mullet.

That is so not what I have. I don't want you to get the wrong idea.

Labels: dentist, hair

HAIR CONDITIONING

Busy day today.

No movie.

The AC guy came for his semi annual cleaning and maintenance.

We found that the inside unit is 1999, 14 years old. But the condenser is fine at 7 years old, 2006.

I never looked or asked before.

It is a painless operation. He comes in with his gauges and shit and tests and runs around and takes an hour. Changes the filters. In this house only one filter.

In the former place we had an AC standard and a heat pump for the other half of the house. It was a formidable maintenance run. Not so here.

Everything is easy in a condo.

The afternoon was devoted to getting ready for, having and coming down from a haircut.

More maintenance of a different kind.

In the old days I buzzed myself short. Then a friend, who is the premier hair salon in town, wheedled me into his chair and the decision to get long hair.

This time is/was the longest I have had the hair since I had a ponytail.

He trimmed it out some so that it is more manageable in back.

I had a good time but it is a trial for me to let someone else do the work and sit back.

I pretty much trust him now and even let him do my eyebrows.

A letting-go exercise from the get go.

Those two things shoot the day. Back to normal tomorrow.

I slick back my hair with no part. Pretty simple.

But this video makes it a big project. Like this guy really wants it with no part but the chick keeps messing with it.

I have no reason to show this other than that I do about the same, no chick, and the guy is triple hot. Look at that smile.

HE wants to get out of that chair and go let his boyfriend smooth it back for him. But he had promised her he would be the model for her video and here he is. Looking like this is something he needs help to do.

Labels: hair, repairs

HAIR TODAY GONE TOMORROW

Well, not really gone. But there is less and less.

Today's movie was a haircut. Same time slot.

I had a good time. That has not always been the case.

I have a long love/hate relationship with barbers, hair stylists and, the present worker on my head, hair dressers. That is what he calls it.

At times, I have been my own barber.

Why am I so resistant and reluctant about hair dos?

Maybe it is trauma although I can't remember anything of note.

Maybe it is hard wired.

I don't like attention of that kind. Group adulation, crowd love, put the spotlight on me me me. One and one, not so much.

Then there is the hoo-doo that goes with it. The mirror. Is it all right? The dressing. The fucking blower.

I have tried it all and found most of it wanting.

But now, there are two things. I do want long hair. And if one is to have it, one needs help. I can give myself a pretty good buzz cut but not "leave it long in the back, a little off the sides and......"

I got to be close friends with a hair dresser, his word for it, and he was at me to let him do my hair. Finally, I let go and went into his shop and the rest is history.

I have pretty much relaxed into the process.

There are some things I still cringe over, some. I don't much like to have the "stress massage" at the beginning. I get stressed rather than lose stress.

I don't much like the shampoo but I have adopted his products for mine and so there is nothing strange about it other than that he is doing it. Best thing about this is that there is no hair on my neck when I go home. It is clean.

I am ambivalent about the drier but we have reached a rapprochement on this. He does a little to shape the sides but then I intervene and show him how I "style" it with wet hands, slicked back. He stops. We go through this dumb show every time.

It is fun because we are friends. There is none of what I had become used to with hair people. No small talk please. I would pretty much be silent. Them too once they caught on. If they did. If they did not I didn't go back.

But my hair dresser is my friend now and so there is just more of the same talk we have any other time.

Easy.

So. No movie today, just a friendly hair job.

At the end he told me to come with him out in the quad that the shop sits on. To meet someone. He had spotted another friend across the court and so both of us went over and hung out a little. Very nice.

This video is really cute. They found a way to let these kids have a bit of a good time while getting the job done.

Distractions work.

Hey, it keeps me going to the same place and getting the best haircut in town from the best hair cutter in town. That is by a vote, folks. And, he is my friend.

Labels: hair

NO SHOW

Today's movie was a haircut. It takes the same time slot.

I had a good time.

I didn't used to.

I hated to sit still and accept the care and ministrations.

Now, I just relax.

I even felt reluctant to leave today.

I get the long cut.

But not this long.

It will be a slim movie week. I will see one tomorrow and then Friday Booker will take us to see his vet for some general checkup stuff. Maybe some discussion of his stiffness. Medication?

Labels: films, hair

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT

Today was a double header.

First, my annual checkup which happens twice a year actually. Only in October there is the EKG and maybe a few other things that I am not aware of.

It all went well. I have lost almost 20 pounds and he is happy about that although somewhat quiet with his praise. It is for me after all, not him.

Hence the blood pressure is well within range of acceptable but too early to decide to reduce the medication.

No other items were found.

We laughed a lot. Dr. Jim is a great guy. I hope we can hold on to him forever. If not, I can move on but I don't want to.

Everyone is getting old. Not a complaint. Just being realistic.

The second excursion was to the barber where we, for the first time, cut the long long hair I have been growing. Combed back sometimes by hand, no part.

I as astonished at the amount of hair he took out of it to shape things up. Last time he did nothing.

But it looks like nothing has been done. Well, almost nothing.

I don't much like going to the hair guy or the doctor but I have the best I can get. The barber is an award winner, the best of PS in some magazine. And he is fun to be with too.

If they can't be fun, I don't want any part of it. Unless I have to. Get a load of the accent on this doctor!

Labels: hair, health, medicine

A LITTLE OFF THE TOP

Well, the sides.

Today's movie was a haircut.

A couple of weeks ago, I started combing my hair without a part. Straight back.

It looked great.

I kept doing it.

I found that when it fell apart, I could just wet my hands and pull it all back again. Easy.

No comb, actually except to get things going in the same direction in the morning.

People noticed. Enough to give me the feedback I wanted. Something new. Not a turnoff. A plus.

I went to my hair guy today and he had already noticed the change. We see each other "around" during the week.

He likes it. I like it.

I am keeping it.

He showed me how a little more grease would also help. Trimmed around the edges. We are letting it grow in the back where my hair is wavy. Just like my Dad's. I like that last part.

He did similar with his hair but parted it in the middle, sort of.

I seem more like my Dad every day so why not this too.

And my hair cutter didn't charge for today's trim. There was no wash and he just sort of set me up for another five weeks.

Labels: hair

THE NATURAL LOOK

I got my hair cut today.

It looks great with the no-glasses thing.

I haven't been without glasses in many years. I was in Boston and we lived at Charles River Park. I had contacts and got viral conjunctivitis (along with a thousand other people) at a mega-optician/optometrist in Cambridge.

I went to Mass Eye and Ear right near our apartment and they tried one more time, got it again and that was that. They told me it would lie in wait for me. So I got glasses.

It would have to be around the eighties. 30 years ago.

For the past couple of days I have reached for them, either to put them on or take them off and they are not there.

Habit. Strong.

I am doing pretty well. The idea is for me, this week, to see if my brain will compensate for two different images at the same time. If so, if it gives preference to the right eye when I am just seeing things and I don't notice that there is a background or other image involved then I will get the left eye as a close up lens for reading.

So far there are periods where I am not at all conscious that there is a left eye. All is clear 20/20 plus right eye. Then if I think about it, it collapses and I see both.

This is with a left eye that is totally not corrected and has the worst of the cataracts in it.

So we shall see.

Still, no pain, no complications and a lot of drops on a regular schedule.

Labels: cataract surgery, hair

SHORTER

I went to get a haircut today.

You may know that this is never easy for me.

I do not have a clue about why.

My hair history is not traumatic.

When I was a kid, I went to Mr. Kitzig out on the main road in Mountainhome Pa. Kitzig was a no nonsense kind of guy. What I liked is that he had copies of the Policeman's Gazette which was not for kids but he didn't care if I read them. He was not a babysitter.

But somehow, it didn't work out in the long run. Maybe my mother found out I had access to the Gazette. It was pretty tame stuff. Girls. She didn't know that even then I was not interested in that. I think, actually, it was the driving me there and the waiting or not. Mostly not.

I needed a barber who would be within walking distance. That would be Edgar Treintasseau (?), a Belgian immigré who still had a photo of King Leopold over the mirror.

Edgar was a drinker and possibly a closet case. He would go out back where they lived and take a snort during the haircut. The Ms. was back there and listened to the banter if any, in the shop. She would sometimes interject from the back.

I remember that Edgar would not give me a crewcut after I had lobbied long and hard with my parents to get one. Everyone else was getting one.

I had him call her to insure that she wouldn't bust his balls after he had done the deed.

After that I think that I just had a buzz cut wherever I went until the 70s when I grew my hair long. Then I had to find a place that would do hippies and I don't remember much about the hunt at all.

I do remember the first time I went to a "stylist". A one man shop. On Dartmouth Street. Norman. An overwrought queen who, if you were in his presence, had the knack of drawing you into his drama.

I don't remember a lot of it but it became too much, we had a fight (everyone did eventually) and I began my slow crawl from one place to another.

I don't know when I started cutting my own hair. I went back to the buzz anyway. Maybe I had it done. Utilitarian.

I had to have a look for my work leading managers in training experiences and nothing too radical was going to work well. There was a period when my work was to be somewhat out there but that changed and so did I. My hair followed the money.

And on and on.

A while ago, I started wearing my hair long again. The old back and forth. A friend is the perennial best in Palm Springs shop and he had offered to do my hair and so why not.

It is OK but I still do not like the fuss.

What is good about this is that it is his shop and it is well designed to provide some privacy and no contact with other clients or hair cutters.

I get a cut (ha ha) rate. But it is still a bit of a pain as I have to go out to get the cut, sit for a half hour and admire myself and his work and be fussed over. I am still not comfortable with it.

It is no drama. Nice and quiet. Probably the best that it can be under the circumstances.

No complaints. Just grumbling.

I know. It is being held hostage. No control. That's it.

Wow. I got it. Thanks for listening.

Oh. I still don't know whether I want the back tapered or blocked.

Labels: hair

MINIPOSTS

Blood tests back from the doc. All OK, especially the PSA. It has been the same for a very long time.

In the office he showed me his little handwritten note with all the PSAs that I have had in 16 years. When I came to him I had just had the radiation and I was also seeing a radiologist but that ended very quickly when Dr. Jim and I both determined that it wasn't necessary. I don't like too much doctoring and Dr. Jim is just the man for me.

There was one sort of dissonant note in a kidney test, Happens every year. I am not drinking enough water.

OK, I can do that.

Haircut today. I don't much like to go but I like the results.

The place I go is pretty low key. No performing seals or hype. The feeling is that I am basically alone with my cutter. He says "dresser". Outside there is a big lawn with chairs and shit and there are a lot of people hanging out. I really don't like that. Remember the introvert reaction to this kind of thing.

And always, always there is someone I know screaming out my name.

Every one turns and looks and stares.

I go to the person as quickly as I can because I don't want any more attention. I say hello, give a hug, take the admiration for the new haircut and get the fuck out of there as soon as I can.

John loves this place. It is so, well, social. So nice.

Not for me. It is a snake pit. I do like seeing my friends there though if they just wouldn't scream my name out.

Polls are out and mostly it shows that Romney and Obama are running neck and neck. In April.

My friends are distraught. What world do they live in?

We knew it would be close. The Obamas said that from the beginning.

More comforting to know that there is a traditional nomination bump.

What have people heard for the last months? Obama the socialist, the evil bastard, the incompetent. While he has no target. Now he does though. I am pretty sure that he is going to kick the Mitter's ass.

NIiknames. My friends also have a variety of names for Romney but we need something better than we have. Mittens is funny, a smirk. Pretty Boy is a bit nasty. Little Lord Flauntleroy.

Most people pick up on his prissiness and disconnections. He has the lowest likability rating of any candidate since the polling began for this.

Labels: hair, health

CUT

Today's film was a haircut.

Seven weeks. Too long. Time and hair.

Now we know. Six weeks would be fine.

He left it a bit longer. Good.

I am still a little uptight about the whole thing.

Too much going on.

If it were up to me I would hire him to come to the house and do it on the back patio. Not likely.

But it is OK.

I will stay with long hair for awhile.

No. This place doesn't look like a barber shop. It is a salon so I guess that it should not.

It is nicely decorated and you sit in a reception area with two long sofas. There are work stations. Nicely, neatly done. They can be moved around.

It is decorator colored. Chocolate brown and stuff.

Extremely neat.

And the magazines run to things like Details and Homme and so on.

When I was a kid they had the Saturday Evening Post and over in a corner away from the kids, a Police Gazette. Which was pretty good actually. Not racy and nothing about police. More magazine noir fiction and semi sensational news items. It looked like a Farmers Almanac. The had that too. And a lot of old newspapers.

I am going to stay with the Long Hair Program. The dresser is a good friend. Nice. That helps because I am still a bit intimidated with the salon culture and inmates.

Labels: hair

HAIR TODAY GONE TOMORROW

I just had my hair cut. Actually, I went to a salon with a guy who styles hair. But he didn't style mine. It looks the same.

I haven't been to a stylist in maybe twenty years. Sometime, somewhere in Boston, long ago. And far away.

I have gone to barbers who have simulated being stylists by washing my hair before the haircut.

I have been getting along with alternating between a pony tail (passé and too bald for it now), a buzz cut, number two metal or outgrown its long welcome and thence to buzz again.

This is what you have to do to avoid a "new haircut" look. Go to a stylist. All scissors. Done dry, washed afterward, a little product and away I go.

Once I got there it wasn't hard to do actually. I know the stylist pretty well. I think maybe he was waiting for me to turn it over to him.

I feel good. It smells good. And while I was not planning to get any product I think that I am going to get the shampoo and conditioner.

See? Hooked. It is how it works.

This was my movie for the day.

Labels: hair

LOCKS

I am going through one of my hair changes.

I decided to let it grow out again.

Not to the old pony tail proportions but to more the wavy over the ear down the neck but not too far style that I sported for years while I worked the rooms of major corporations.

Why? Because I can.

One of the oddities of my aging process has been that I still have dark brown hair. Sure. There is a little silver highlighting. But viewed in the right light, I am not grey.

Actually, the silver highlights (which do glisten) prove to the skeptical that I don't dye it. Although I know for a fact you can get this kind of thing done in a beauty parlor.

Anyway, now, there will be more of it.

I got tired of the pony tail so went radically to the Number Two metal shaver. Did it myself. Went to a barber for a while the last year. Got sick of the whole thing.

I will need to find someone to trim it eventually. I have a salon owner friend but I don't think I will go to him. Probably back to Judy where John goes. She washes it but I guess there is no way out of that.

Labels: hair

MAINTENANCE

After a great new groundbreaking three way walk this morning, it was time to do some maintenance. A hair cut.

What about the walk?

Booker gets to choose. Unless he doesn't. And today, he went straight up Baristo and on past Sunrise. We went past the library, the drive to the community swimming pool, then on past the semi-pro ball field which actually has a team these past few summers (The Palm Springs Power--mostly college stars). Then on past the theater that shows all the art films and finally, to the high school complex. We turned right along Farrell and crossed Ramon (not one car on a Sunday morning) and went to the Mesquite golf course where I used to bike through.

Today, we walked through. Very nice.

Then to Sunrise, headed north, then west on Baristo and home.

The time was just about the traditional hour and fifteen minutes for a Sunday walk.

It was cool. We left at 6AM, a little late for summer, but no problem. Just a little damp on the back of my neck. 78 degrees.

Home and off in the Jeep to fill the gas tank for the selling process. Tomorrow he will get new shoes on the front and the brakes checked. Spiffy. A smog check and then he will get an airing on CraigsList.

I am glad to have a friend do all this for me. He will get 10%.

The Jeep is in good condition and, for its age, low milage. The problem will be the stick shift. We will have to find someone who loves it like I did.

Then home, the back of my neck dried off, I cut my hair.

It takes about 20 minutes to do. I need to go slow and go over it many times to be sure not to leave small patches.

Then a shower and on with the day for which nothing but a movie is planned.

Labels: automobiles, hair, life

BUZZ

You know that I cut my long hair off. No ponytail.

Well, not me. Someone else did the cutting.

I went twice and had to endure the barber's dog licking my feet, the barber's yakking, and the barber's unwillingness to do what I asked.

"Number two plastic, no taper, no lowering the ears, no talcum".

In other words just buzz the damn hair.

He said that he hated doing an incomplete job. I told him that wasn't his problem.

I notice that he collected the full fee when I left.

So I had enough of the dog, the yak and the attitude and realized that for the cost of two unpleasant haircuts I could buy a Wahl shaver and have John do it.

After all, there is no taper. No neck work. No lowering of the ears.

So I bought the shaver and today saw its first use.

I think that the new barber (his first time at bat) was a little nervous but, really, the job almost does itself.

In less than five minutes I have just the barbering job I had to pay $15.00 plus tip for.

One thing though.

It turns out that I still got my feet licked.

Franklin.

Labels: Franklin, hair