Haircut with Danny the Barber

I went to the barber to have my hair cut.   I saw in the mirror that white hair were starting to envelope my head. I am getting old.




Danny has been my barber since I was in high school. He was one of the barbers  at the demised Christian Barber Shop.

My childhood hair cut was done by Ka Bider the neighborhood barber who was so old that he couldn't see patches of unshaven hair on the nape. His shop was an open air affair, a balconahe of some sort. The place was a kitchen, a dining area, it was a common area for three or more families and the things that identifed it as a barbershop were the barber's chair, mirror's and of course, sexy pictures of women promoting alcoholic drinks.

In high school I started to look for a more respectable barbershop, not that Mang Bider is not respectable, but I'm already in my teens and crew cut was not my thing anymore. Christian Barbershop was a novelty for me. It was airconditioned, well lighted, and the clean painted walls featured pictures of male models sporting the latest "new wave" hairstyle of the era, think Tony Hadley, Simon Lebon, George Michael, Depeche Mode, etc. The place looked more like a beauty shop, which boys and men didn't go to to have their hair done back then, than a barbershop.

The shop didn't last long and when I asked Danny why, he told me it was due to mismanagement. I guess another factor that contributed to the demise of the barbershop was the rise of the franchise beauty shops in the malls that cater to both sexes.

Danny has moved to the AMA barbershop which also folded until finally he had his own shop.

Two decades of haircuts. I can only imagine how much hair Danny had snipped from my head.

This is called "Suki" a patronage relationship in the Philippines that is synonymous to friendship that sometimes borders on to family between a vendor and a seller, a relationship that is fast disappearing because of the impersonal and professional marketing technique used by malls and commercial establishments.

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