Physical Intelligence - Day 50
CityVP Manjit
I can see why the process of aging has come to be viewed as an affliction rather than a grace that comes with age. For sure we can colour our hair, put on make up, change our wardrobe and comb our hair a different way, but at 50+ if the hair line begins to thin and the looks disappear, that is simply a stage called middle age and I am cool with that.
My thinning, Einstein-crazy, graying hair was not satisfactory to our family and I was directed to go the barbers. For what? So I look presentable for a wedding where I am but one of hundreds of guests. So to save the argument I agreed. My normal place called "First Choice" has jacked up its prices so I am not paying more than $20 for a cut. Today that meant I drove around to find a new venue. I drove into our village in the city and there I saw a store that says "Barbers".
For half-a-century I thought I knew what a "Barbers" was, but as I walked in from the back door entrance, a group of stylist dudes asked me if I had an appointment. I knew as I walked in that this is not the kind of "barbers" that I grew up knowing as "barbers". This was 20 somethings cutting the hair of other young dudes, all of which were picking their styles via whatever they had flashed to their stylist. It is then I realized I had walked into a stylist hair salon which calls its "barbers studio" and that this new joint was simply a clever way of charging metrosexual hair styling rates, that previously was the realm of women who never questioned why they were so charged so much.
As I left, perfectly OK if that is what guys want to pay for cuts, I now knew that I was on the look out for a rare hair cutter who charges under $20 for a "Men's Hair Cut". I knew the place my dad goes to was cheap but I had never been there and but having drove around and discovered that the metrosexual hair styling cult had infected many of the male species in my area, I decided to go the Chinese mall and check out where my dad gets his hair cut. They were absolutely busy though they were also the best kept secret in my area for the price they charge and though I thought this place would not attract the metrosexual cult, it did attract one young Indian boy who flashed his cell-phone and pointed that this was the method he wanted his hair cut.
At least this guy was not paying over the odds but it was still in the $30 range - but at least better than paying for a $40+ cut and whatever the stuff he wanted doing to his head. The downside was a long wait for a cut, and with the time taken looking for a new place, that was effectively more than 2+ hours of my life. Yet it was worth the trip rather than subject myself to a home cut, which my daughter will gladly do, though her hair cut takes all of 5 minutes feeling like a lawn mower had just whizzed every and which way all over my aging head.
The reality is that while my generation is responsible for expensive and overpriced coffee done with style, it is the millennial generation who has turned a barber into a fashion statement and where once there was a place where I simply could go to have a hair cut, now it is the whole experience and this is what happens when people live their lives to the expectations of what they find on their cell phone and this brainwashing cult called personal branding.
Over 14 million people have watched the following video showing a Number 3 razor, so now the person doing the hair cut expects me to tell them in my most expert voice what number and experience I would like to have but when I tell them "cheap and nasty" - this leaves them dumbfounded unless I find someone who still plys the trade of a traditional barber cutting hair for a cheap price.
Once I visited the Chinese hair cutters, this was not a place which was a place for a cheap cut, it was frequented by rich Chinese people who have not bought into the stylistic cult and expect a good price for a hair cut. The incredible thing is that my kids do the over-priced thing and carry different styles on their heads just like women have always done. Since everyone who goes to these places snap their cut to their friends, the price of cutting hair is going up and as people desert the traditional barber, the gentrification of barber shops is at least about 90% complete.
There is physical intelligence in our grooming and dress but my needs today were just a simple hair cut, without going to the extreme and have it done at home. I have had the home based cut on several occasions and there is a difference when a professional does it and when my daughter buzz-saws me. The biggest difference is trading amateur cut pain for professional scissors and machine cut. Ultimately, as I get ready for today's party, hardly anyone is going to notice that I even had a hair cut because they are all going to be busy trying to take shots of how they look and manic about their own appearance. Thanks personal branding world for adding unnecessary costs in a world where one should be physically intelligent about the act of spending and saving for the future. Not all of life needs to be a fashion statement or Facebook share. It does tempt me to get a cell phone so I can show a picture of a baboons backside to my next barber - and tell them, "short and sweet please and not like this picture".
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