I e-mailed Kirk Penney to find out why his hair looked so much better than mine after getting it cut at the College Barber Shop. Mine really didn't look that bad, but I had a little post-haircut trauma, and I'm sure Kirk gets it, too.
I'd seen his picture on the wall at the barbershop, smiling after a haircut, and I wanted to ask him if he was just posing and not really recovering from a haircut. Who smiles after a haircut?
Haircuts are traumatizing, and I go into every one knowing that for two or three hours afterwards I'm going to be a little shaken. Then again, I never go in for just a trim'I do those in front of the bathroom mirror. The barber is for when inches have got to go.
So anyway, this morning I got up half an hour early so I could get my hair cut before class, and as I walked down to the College Barber Shop, I tried to convince myself that I was doing the right thing.
It's always spur of the moment and it always comes with a little doubt. It's like suddenly I realize it's time for a hair change, or maybe not, and usually this coincides with the spur of the moment decision that I need to make some sort of larger change in my life.
I still believe that cutting my hair or dyeing it or maybe growing a beard will psychologically change me. I don't just go in for a haircut, I go in for a life change'and so far nothing's ever really changed at all.
Nothing's any different for me tonight than it was last night, only tonight I keep checking my e-mail to see if Kirk Penney has gotten back to me, and I don't think he will. I don't think haircuts are that big a deal to him.
Kirk Penney looks to me like the kind of guy who goes in to get his hair cut every two or three weeks. He looks like the kind of guy who puts at least some time into his hair every morning and I think anyone who does that harbors some feelings of insecurity.
I don't believe in combing hair or gelling it up. I just think that once you get it cut or dyed or whatever else you should just be ready to go, and that's probably why I always freak out a little about haircuts. Once it's cut, I know that it's what I'm going to have to live with.
It's all a matter of growing into it. It's all about getting used to it, and maybe that is a psychological change. And maybe that's not even a healthy change, and maybe Kirk Penney is smart to always keep his hair looking about the same. And he's probably smart not to have e-mailed me back too.
What was he going to say, anyway? I was hoping he'd admit that he gets some sort of special athlete treatment from the barber, and that's why his hair looks good, but that's probably not true. After all, barbers are good people, and I keep turning to them instead of to a psychologist.
andrewmiller@students.wisc.edu
