A man is locked in a toxic relationship with his barber that is based on lies, he has admitted.
Steve Malley has visited barber Bill McKay for much of his life, partly due to him being down the road but also due to their tacit bond of silence over his thinning hair.
Malley said: “He could tell me it would be easier to chop it all off since there isn’t much up top anymore, but he keeps quiet. It’s omerta for male pattern baldness.
“You can’t buy that sort of trust, although I do pay him a ridiculous 20 quid for what amounts to a really quick trim. But it’s the peace of mind I’m paying for. You know, like how when you hire a prostitute but you don’t shag her, you just want to be held.”
McKay said: “People think being a barber is just cutting hair and talking about holiday plans, but I’m really a specialist psychotherapist helping middle-aged men through a difficult transition in their lives.
“No one wants to be the person who suggests it’s time to move on to the head-shaving stage of life. It’s not pleasant seeing a grown man break down in the chair and cry like a little girl.
“Although it does mean I can sell ‘specially formulated’ scalp moisturiser to the bald coots.”
Of course.
I am ok at the moment and don't need ‘specially formulated’ scalp moisturiser'
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Barbers are grumpy ones that don't talk.
Mine too. And I have always been eternally grateful that I only went grey, never bald. Jx
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