Your choice of crew cut
“Shuffleton’s Barber Shop” by Norman Rockwell. N-Rock lived and painted in Stockbridge, MA, a short drive from my home town. The man was a genius.
I got a haircut yesterday at a little barbershop, located a level down on Fulton Street. It’s one of those places that looks like it hasn’t changed in 50 years. The little waiting area had a bottle of scotch for the men (next to a sleeve of Dixie cups), a jar of candy for the boys, and Playboys in the magazine rack. (Which gives a whole new meaning to the term “nice rack,” but I digress.) On the wall, age-tinted pictures and one of those charts showing old-school men’s haircuts, ranging from crew cuts to different kinds of crew cuts to one conspicuous pompadour.
The place actually reminded me of Mario’s, in Canaan, where I got my haircuts as a kid, and of, let’s see, pretty much every barber shop I’ve been in since. Barber shops are not going to take any crap from time, all right? Anyway, the final score from yesterday: The Playboys stayed in the rack; the scotch, no comment; and the haircut makes me look like an extra from Footloose.
Usually places like that can really only do ONE hair cut.
My husband once asked in a place like that to give him a mohawk and he left looking like Footloose. No joke!!
Yeah, I can totally see that happening. Or not happening. They have the clippers right there, but they just can’t bring themselves to do it.
I think Footloose is what happens when they are asked to do anything other than their standard haircut. That is their crazy setting: still 1950s, but with just a hint of the 80s creeping in.