When I think about barber shops, I picture something like the photo above. It had the huge barber pole outside and the barbers wore those white coats/smocks. Inside there were the jars with funky blue liquid in them where combs and other tools of the trade might be. There are still a few of them around.

We took Andrew to get his haircut yesterday. My wife really liked the way this one place did it before, so we went back. I’d never heard of the place – Hair Mechanix.

“Man Maintenance!” I was wowed by the place when I walked in. It could be a man cave. On the walls were pictures of sportscars, motorcycles, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, and other “guy stuff.” It was really nice.

The stylists are, of course, female, and they were all saying how cute Andrew was. As they cut his hair, I was offered something to drink. They had water, pop, and beer! Yeah, beer! Not wanting to spend any money on one I declined. Come to find out, they are complimentary. Go figure. Have a brew and get a trim.

I was looking at the big board with all their services and prices. They do pretty much everything. They will wax your eyebrows, your ears or your nose (ouch!). They will trim your beard and mustache and they will shave your head. I asked if they waxed heads, because a bald friend of mine swears by it. I was told they didn’t.

I walked back over to where Andrew was getting his cut and my wife asked what I was talking to the girl at the counter about. I told her about them not waxing heads and she said “Yeah, but they shave them. You should do that while we are here.” I told her I was ok, and didn’t want to spend the money, but she insisted. “I get my hair done every month or so. I also get a pedicure every so often. You don’t do anything for YOU. Do it.”

I asked the gal if she was expecting an appointment or if she had time to shave my head. She said yes and showed me to her chair. Can I tell you, as silly as I felt, I really felt “pampered.” She first put the cape on me and then put some (what I assumed was) shaving cream on my head. She came back with a hot towel and put it on my head. I’ve always heard about hot towels and such, but this was the first time having one on. It felt pretty good, actually.

After a bit, she took the towel off and all of the shaving cream that was on my head was gone, apparently soaked up by the towel – or my head. She then grabbed some sort of oil, applied that and then there was another how towel. By this time I was pretty relaxed. I never would have thought this would be so relaxing. She lifted part of the towel and folded it toward the back of my head.

Again she applied some shaving cream and began to shave my head. (I guess they will shave your face, too.) What surprised me was that she used a straight razor to shave me. I have never been able to shave with one of those. I always seem to cut myself up. My stylist, however, did a fantastic job. My head was overdue to be shaved, so there was a lot for her to shave. The razor did its thing and my wife said it looked great.

One thing I can never seem to get is the back of my neck at home. Sam always laughs at what I miss. Every once in a while it gets so long that she shaves the back of my neck for me. My stylist cleaned up my neck and trimmed my caterpillar eye brows as a bonus. After she was done she put on some nice smelling cream or oil and I was on my way.

I’m not going to lie, I felt really good afterward. How silly is that? It was simply 15-20 minutes of hair (bald) care and I loved it. My wife told me that I really need to take time to do this every month or so. You know what? I think I will!