A cut less than zero

(My head, after yesterday's zero cut)

All my life I have worn my hair cut short and now in my senior years when there is less of it on my head I tend to go for the zero cut.

It is not so much that I think I look good as a Yul Brynner clone; actually I don't think that I do but I do like the buzz feel of the two/three days old growth. What hair I have left grows quickly so it's back to the barber every few weeks for another shearing.

I frequent an el-cheapo 'barbering' establishment located in the CBD at the edge of Chinatown. After all, the zero cut requires no styling to speak of and is over in minutes so why spend a fortune at an upmarket stylist.

It is a curious establishment. The back half has women barbers all of whom are of Asian origin. Most of the Asian and women customers are directed to these barbers. The front half has men barbers most of whom are of Middle Eastern origin; Lebanese, I believe. They deal with most of the male customers. So the front half is a cachophony of Arabic noise whilst Cantonese resonates from the rear.

A lot of backpacking type tourists frequent the barber shop, no doubt because of its proximity to tourist accommodation and sites. A family group, father mother and young daughter, evidently tourists from Europe and of non-English speaking background, tentatively entered the shop whilst I was being shorn there yesterday. As is their habit one of the female barbers attempted to briskly seat the family taking no notice of the woman's protestations that she wanted to discuss matters first.

The woman prevailed and asked a few questions about costs before pointing to the 'style' photographs adorning the walls when she asked whether she had to choose a style from that selection for her daughter. It seemed an odd question to me but then I don't know what is the practice in their home country. Anyway, the barber produced a style book which the mother perused with her increasingly reluctant daughter. By the time the mother had chosen a style the daughter was in tears and had to be almost dragged to the chair for her cut.