Haircut

I remember one time when I was in the Navy, I gave some haircuts to some guys. What happened was that we were out at sea for around 3 months, unexpectedly, and when we were getting ready to pull into Japan the Skipper decided that no one could leave the boat without a regulation haircut. There was some hair clippers on board but not a soul knew how to use them. I told the guys in my watch section that I would cut there hair for them but I wasn't responsible for the results. The only experience I had was cutting hair on show cows and that is a little different than humans. I butchered a bunch of the guys but got there hair cut so it fell within regulations. I couldn't get anybody to do mine so I chopped on it myself until it would pass inspection, it helped that I was in charge of inspections for my watch. It wasn't pretty and most of them got it fixed by the base Barbers while we were in port, but they were able to leave the boat. I swore I would never cut hair again.

Well, you know how life sneaks up and trips you up sometimes. The boy, who is autitic for those who don't know, just hates getting his haircut. We gave up a long time ago having it cut by a professional since he fought so hard. My Darling Wife tried to cut his hair, with me holding him, but was real uncomfortable with this and then one day she nicked his ear and itr bled and she won't even go near his hair now. That left it up to me to cut his hair with her holding him. We've been doing this for quite a while now and he does not like it and does fight us fairly considerably when we do it.

This afternoon I sat down to let My Darling Wife cut my hair, yes she still does mine, I don't bleed as bad, and the boy came over and watched with interest and started playing with his hair. When I was done I asked him if he wanted his hair cut and he indicated he did in his own way. I started by asking him to sit down but he would have none of that so I started cutting his hair with him standing up. He let me give him a full haircut with nobody holding him just like a big boy. It was so great. I won't say he didn't give me any trouble but he did so good from the days of kicking and fighting that it wasn't even funny. It's hard to describe to you how this made me feel. Joyous, relived, ecstatic, proud are some of the words. The boy is getting big enough that he can be hard to fight so the willingness he showed for having this done was wonderful.

I still won't claim I can cut hair but I am getting pretty good at it anymore. I challenge any non-professional, and most professionals, to do any better on the wiggly, jumpy, moving target I work with. He's getting better though which I am so happy about. Maybe we are making progress with him. Maybe we are doing right. I can only hope. The boy got a treat of ice cream and home made hot fudge sauce for dessert for his good job. He was thrilled.

It's great to have something you can be proud of. Robin Trower