There are two things in life that I will use until they quit on me. I wear out shoes until they are falling apart, and I have gone to the same barber shop for as long as I can remember.

Whenever it was time to get a haircut, I would stroll into the establishment with my mom and tell them that I need the usual summer buzz cut. In the winter time, it was the usual winter buzz. Now, this isn't a very hard hair style to perfect. I could have gone anywhere and had the person lower the clips down to the proper length and had the same job done. It was so simple, my mom would give it a shot when schedules were too busy to get to the barber shop in time. However, she is the only other person to have cut my hair.

I guess it is just the simplicity of it all. Instead of telling the person cutting my hair, "I want it short," and then playing guessing games to see if it looks nice afterward, I just sit down, say the typical greetings, and telling them, "Give me the usual." I trust that they know what I'm talking about after going there basically all my life, and all haircuts are the same price. This level of trust also means I'm more likely to patronize their business. That's not to say the other barbers aren't as skilled, it is just that I know what I'm going to get with the current guys. I'm very picky about my hair. I don't like to have a guessing game of how it looks because I can't always look in a mirror and see how it is. Buzz cuts are nice because it is cooler for warmer environments (summer months or sports), and they are visibly impossible to mess up. The wind can't disrupt what I think it looks like, and I'm never worried about hat hair with it. Couple that with the level of faith I have in my current guy, I can safely say it is going to be one of the biggest things I'll miss about the area.

Now, I've selected a highly stressful occupation, so I hope that I won't need to struggle with finding a new barber when I leave this area. Regardless, I still don't want to find a new one. After so long, they know your name and a little about you. Anymore, we talk about music and performing. They ask about family members like brothers and mother. I guess in that regard it's like "Cheers" where "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name."