Monday, 18 November 2013


A Busy Day at Master Barber's Busy Barber Shop  (Part 11)




Ma’am the Female Police Officer looked at Bella “and said YEAP our turn soon Bella” with a serious look on her face. Bella replied “Ma’am YES Ma’am” with a smile on her face.  

Ma’am same as Madam is a term used when addressing a woman of important position in a polite and respectful way.

Again the barbershop door opened and the two women whom stood facing the Barberry shrub walked in. “Are you open they asked simultaneously?” looking at Master Barber.

“Yes we are come on in… said Sir.

“God, we are glad that your open and that we were finally brave enough and decided to walk
in “said Rachel batting her long brown hair around her face whilst her friend stood silently.

Imee, the Filipino lady hair-cutter quickly responded ”Your faces are all covered with drizzle and looking like your miserable  and troubled with of some kind heartache or hiding from someone, what is wrong?”  

“Well ….  I am heartbroken and I guess that shows with the twinge of anguish and sadness on my face” said Rachel whilst her friend nodded her head in agreement silently.

“Some tissues … Here wipe that drizzle of your faces and take a seat here in the waiting area whilst I get you both some hot coffee…” said Imee the Filipino lady hair-cutter.

Imee, a Filipino name commonly known in the Philippines as the name of Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos daughter. Marcos was president of the Philippines until 1986. The word Imee has both a Germanic and Spanish origin meaning ‘entire battle’.

Bella moved over closer to Rachel putting her arm around her shoulder in a comforting and reassuring gesture “your long hair is all wet and dripping let me get you a towel and help you dry it ok?”

A heartening and emotional somber could be felt in the waiting area as Bella walked over past the area where Master Barber (Sir) was in the midst of finishing  Django  the teenage boys’ very short high and tight flat top and took two clean red towels from the rack at the back wall.

Both Rachel and her friend Aubrey were batting long hair around their faces dripping of water all over their faces and dresses. It was very much apparent that the wind and the rain had played major havoc with both their hairdos. Not that either of them seemed to care about their present appearance any more.  

Rachel wore what looked very much like one of MaxMara’s Pianoforte range, a dress that would put any woman on the fashion radar looking evening wear elegant as she did in the Blasone dress.  Her dress was an intricate play on drapery; layers of silky black fabric fell from ruffled shoulders and cross at the waist for a flattering finish which she had teamed up a pair of statement high heels. One would assume she was out to up the ante and make an impression on some lucky guy.

Her friend Aubrey wore a Victoria Beckham sequin front tunic dress. Made using black crepe, it featured three quarter-length sleeves, an above thigh-grazing hem and the all-important tonal and multicolored stripe sequin embellishment. It was a perfect after-dark outfit complimented with her high heeled boots and a clutch for the playfully chic look night out.

Here we go gal’s said Bella as she handed each of them a red towel and said … “let’s dry that hair girls before you catch a cold”.

Bella, took her seat next Rachel  once again, putting her arm around her shoulder in a comforting and reassuring gesture and  saying “over here lets dry that very wet long hair dripping all over your dress…… “as she gently helped to pull Rachel to bend over  and point her head towards her lap, flipping  her hair over her head so it's in front of her face and hanging down into the red towel that covered Bella’s lap.

Bella now ran her fingers through Rachel’s hair to remove any knots and tangles before wrapping it up with the towel, tucking the towel behind Rachel’s ears before twisting the hair in the towel until it was completely wrapped. 

Bella then asked Rachel to raise her ahead and flipped the towel back over her head, tucking in that hanging part of the towel at the back. “Now relax and drink and the coffee that Imee has made whilst I take care of your friend Aubrey’s hair” said Bella.

Rachel’s friend Aubrey 5’10” and very slim looked at Bella and asked “Do you work here?”
Bella with a caring look in her eyes said “No… No... Me and my friend Stephanie the Female Police Officer (Ma’am) are here for our haircuts. Now come let me dry that hair of yours”

Aubrey moved over and took her seat next to Bella.  Bella put her arm around her shoulder in a comforting and reassuring gesture and said “over here let’s dry that very wet long hair dripping all over your dress…… “as she gently helped to pull Aubrey to bend over and point her head towards her lap, flipping her hair over her head so it's in front of her face and hanging down into the red towel that covered Bella’s lap.

Bella now ran her fingers through Aubrey’s hair to remove any knots and tangles before wrapping it up with the towel, tucking the towel behind Rachel’s ears before twisting the hair in the towel until it was completely wrapped. 

Bella then asked Aubrey to raise her head and flipped the towel back over her head, tucking in that hanging part of the towel at the back. “Now relax and drink and the coffee that Imee has made you whilst I take care of your friend Aubrey’s hair” said Bella.

As Aubrey sat up and took her first sip of the coffee that Imee had made for her and Rachel she looked at Rachel and Bella in the face and said “thank god we decided to walk and not get stuck in that taxi queue. Every taxi that had gone past since was occupied and the fresh windy drizzle and rain opened our eyes and helped us find a lovely new friend like you Bella”.

Bella looked at Imee with a reassuring gesture and replied “your welcome...  thank god Sir’s Barber Shop here was open and the fact that we got to meet you gals”.

“So what brings you gals here in those expensive dresses that would put any woman on the fashion radar?  “asked Stephanie the Female Police Officer (Ma’am).

“So …. So true Ma’am... We've never had any girl com in dressed in such fashion that I could only ever dream of “said Imee, the Filipino lady hair-cutter.

Rachel looked at Bella, Stephanie and Imee with a twinge of sadness on her face and said” it’s a long story and I don’t want to bore and worry you all… but we hadn't planned on visiting a barbershop when we left home some six hours ago. We were out to have fun and let off steam until ……anyway the coffee is so lip-smacking good ‘lip-lumalagutok masarap’ Imee”.

All could see tears starting to drop on Aubrey’s face as Rachel spoke. Sir had now walked back to his work bench and picked up his electric clippers again, this time with no guard, Andis Black Clipper Comb commonly used for clipper cuts or flattops and the clipper-over-comb cutting technique.

 He turned looked at Imee, Bella, Stephanie, Rachel, and Aubrey and said “in all my years as a barber I have never had women dressed so beautifully in runway fashion grace my chair” and walked over to Django’s right side to start the clipper-over-comb cutting technique. 

Rachel’s face suddenly showed her bashful, shy look and a few tears of joy could be seen fall quietly for a few seconds as Sir continued making headway with shearing off Django’s tresses.

Master Barber used the comb to elevate segments of Django’s hair that was spiked up on the top of his head starting at the right side and then cut by one stroke of the electric clippers which he held in his barbers’ cutting hand leaving Django’s hair a little shorter than two (2) inches long on the top of his head.

Aubrey then broke out and said with a serious voice and tears falling from her eyes “well we were at a club dancing the night away and decided to go outside a breath of fresh air when Rachel walked past a small car with misted windows parked just to the right of the club’s main entrance and through them she saw the silhouette of a couple snogging, and she felt a twinge of sadness and a sudden yearning for Liam her lover, whom she had dumped almost twelve months ago now”.  

She sobbed for a few seconds then with a lot of anger on her face said “The bastard had been unfaithful. OK, he had pleaded with her to forgive him, but she just knew he would stray again, and again – he was that sort. All the same, she still misses him a lot at times, and she always wonders where he is now. What he was doing tonight. Who he was with…...He’d be with a girl for sure.

And I am no better; it's been a year since I got dumped. Frankly, I would not blame any of you for being at the point of thinking—if not saying—"Why the frick haven’t’ these bitches gotten over this yet?

I and Rachel wonder the same thing ourselves and that’s part of the reason why were sitting here now... In a Barber Shop I mean heartbroken. There's that saying that it takes half the length of the relationship to "get over it."

Ma’am the Female Police Officer replied “if that were the case, you would have another year and four months to go. For the love of God let me help you gals!"

Rachel and Aubrey looked at each other with a sense of relief on their faces reprieve, respite as if they had just been handed out a stay of execution.

“So why are you really here in this Barber Shop” asked Bella with a sense of intrigue.

“I've always been the type that once burned does not stop smarting from the sting. Walking along the street under the rain & battling the wet long hair around our faces made me ponder whilst standing besides that spiny Barberry shrub with yellow flowers and red berries across the road facing this Barbershop directly whether it’s time we both did away with the past” said Aubrey.

Rachel then looks at Ma’am the Female Police Officer and said “well theirs a small part of me that is still pissed-off at my childhood best friend for seemingly deciding that I wasn't cool enough to be friends with anymore come high school because of the way I wear my hair and the time I spend brushing it. 

Till the very day I remain absolutely livid that my cousin, who was one of my closest friends growing up, cut me out of her life because of a fight between my father and hers over the  amount of shampoo and conditioner I used over the pyjama party weekend at her house. 

You know its’ so livid that I've continued to have vivid dreams of cursing her out for her lack of loyalty to our relationship.                                     

Right now, If you asked me for the short list of people I hate, its that bastard Liam the ex-boyfriend and lover, whom I had dumped almost twelve months ago now and also a another male friend from high school who was my childhood best friend and a complete a-hole to me at the time, as well as my cousin — would be on it.

All of them expressed jealousy and commented how childish, insecure and frivolous I was wasting so much time taking care of my long hair rather than being with them.

When Liam was no longer showing me any signs of his apasionarse… you know no more signs of getting enthusiastic about something or madly passionate about me I felt there was something behind it.

Liam that bastard used my hair as his excuse for  having been unfaithful, saying that he felt overpowered and sandwiched by me and that my having long hair was a the reason based on the scapegoat or stereo typed presumption that having long hair is the source of a hero's powers that allowed me to have so strong an effect on him and others that he was unable to resist or control me and or rather my so called commitment to obey God's command for me personally not to cut it.

He claimed that many other women with modern tales, told him that my hair was my emotional anchor that unless cut off renders  him mentally overwhelmed, forced into being defeated by me,  powerless, vulnerable ,  physically helpless and unable to fight back.

“What about you Aubrey?” asked Bella.

“For me I feel as if I'm almost over the heartbreak. There's not one ounce of me that's still physically attracted to him. While I miss the friendship we had, the way he made me laugh, the sweet things he would do, like running his hand gently through my long hair as if it were a comb, like plate the dinner he made from scratch like we were dining at a fancy restaurant, and the fun we had travelling together, I cannot honestly say I don't also miss him as my boyfriend, lover at all.

Each time I look in the mirror I miss his gentle hand running gently through my long hair as if it were a comb and the affectionate emotions he would express each and every time.  I sometimes dream about him and have these horrible nightmares over the fact that he’s with some other girl now. I picture him running his hand through her long hair and cannot live with that” said Aubrey.

“For some women Jewelry; Vast wardrobes; Footwear; Cosmetics but for some weird reason, none of them are the most prized possessions for either of you two individuals; instead, it's... hair” said Ma’am the Female Police Officer with a serious look on her face eyeing both Aubrey and Rachel.

“You know  I think it’s time for you both to take a clear-headed conscientious look at yourselves; your misery obscurity and gloom  in the mirror here then compare and realize the difference and importance, of a Self-induced Haircut to indicate a change in your values, goals instilling  a much needed change in character and an Expository Hairstyle Change when there's a new stereo type hairstyle fashion virus in the air to please the status quo”  added Ma’am the Female Police Officer.

Rachel then burst out and said “Heartbreak is fucking difficult but in reality easier to get over than anger. I have so much anger left. I feel angry at him for breaking my heart, for stringing me along, and for betraying our very deep friendship as well as relationship. I feel angry that he lied to save face, rather than telling the truth so that I could face reality and fix it sooner.

I feel so angry that he left me with an at times paralyzing insecurity and doubt in myself and in my chances of ever being loved again. I feel angry that these insecurities have caused me to act like complete idiot in friendships and the romances I've tried out since.

I am so stupid — I haven't totally screwed-up anything romantic since that had the potential to be significant yet (hopefully!), but I still don’t feel good shedding insecure tears for dudes I barely know” as she sobbed and shed more tears.

The term “fucking” and adjective used for adding emphasis and express anger. To many is it an extremely offensive expression used for emphasizing what you are saying and especially to show levels of extreme  anger.

Barber Wallace put the clippers down and hit the foam dispenser and white foam came out of it. He came back around Django and applied the warm white foam to his hairline across his nape and over his ears. He took a towel and placed it over his shoulder. He then took a straight razor and ran it over a leather strap on the side of the chair.

Master Barber Wallace (Sir) could now be seen tilting Django’s head straight forward and sliding the razor into his nape scrapping it across the back of his neck. He ran it up over his right ear and down his right cheek. He went around to his left side and ran the razor over his left ear as well and down his other cheek. He wiped his hairline off with a towel and threw the towel into a bin.

He put some lotion on his hand and applied it to Django’s skin that was previously covered with long tresses of hair where he had just shaved. The smell was that of masculine guys’ aftershave lotion and very cooling on the teenage boys’ skin.



  (To Be Continued - Parts 12 through 20 will follow soon) 

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