
I went to visit a friend who had just opened a new barbershop.
The place was massive and had to have had at least 30 or 40 chairs in a large hall that I thought resembled what might have been a supermarket at one time.
I was greeted by a young man who knew me though I didn't remember knowing him, who told me my friend hadn't arrived but he would be glad to cut my hair as he was expecting me.
I followed him to his chair and he proceeded to give me a haircut.
A few minutes later, I watched as my friend arrived and entered through a side door where there was another, independent space separated from the main hall by an arched wall with even more barber chairs.
I saw my friend talking to one of his barbers who I assumed to be the shop manager; he was pointing at me and obviously talking to the manager about me.
Oddly, despite being well out of earshot of the two men talking, I was somehow able to hear every word of their conversation.
My friend was telling the manager that he wanted me to move my Night Barber operations into the smaller section of the shop where during the evening hours they could close off the arched wall and my customers could enter the shop through the side door.
I was surprised to hear all this as my friend and I had never talked about my opening up a barbershop at his new location.
My friend then walked over and greeted me, taking the clipper and comb from his employee telling him that he'd finish up with my haircut.
My friend then proceeded to cut my hair very short into a French crop saying that he didn't like the haircut his employee was giving me.
After my haircut, we went into my friend's office and he asked me why I was using hair products at my shop from the well-known barbershop in Rotterdam and had stopped using the hair products he used to sell me.
I told him quite frankly it was because when I was just starting out, I had asked him the favor of selling me quantities below his minimum order requirement and he refused to do it.
He apologized by saying he knew it was wrong and that was why he was going to let me open my shop in his new location and not charge me any rent whatsoever.
Meanwhile, one of my friend's employees walked into the office saying he had a situation with a customer that required my friend's attention.
It turned out that a young man from India had come in for a haircut with his hair coated in some kind of hard wax that the barber was unable to remove in order to cut the man's hair.
The Indian man apologized for not removing the wax coating and said all he wanted was for the barber to trim and clean up the back and nape.
My friend looked over the man's hair and made an failed attempt at trimming the hair on the back of the man's head.
My friend turned to me and asked if I had any ideas and I took a pair of scissors and began cutting into the man's hair in short, quick vertical jabs, something I had seen recently on a YouTube barber tutorial video.
My friend was impressed having never seen that maneuver despite being a master barber with years of experience.
After a few minutes, the Indian man said what I had done until that moment was better than he could have expected and that he was satisfied and had to be on his way. He stood up from the chair and walked out the side door onto Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles.
I told my friend that he didn't pay for the haircut, to which my friend said the Indian man had paid by giving us a valuable lesson and worthwhile experience.
Then I woke up.
Comments