Sunday, August 31, 2014

Haircut

A Man, his Barber, a Haircut, and Denial of Vanity


After two and a half years of letting my hair grow, I decided it was finally time to get a haircut. So I took the three hour drive from 
G-Ville to Sacramento to see my old friend 
Anthony Giannotti; aka Anthony the Barber.

before and after haircut at Anthony's Barbershop


Anthony Giannotti
Anthony Giannotti

Now, you may be wondering why in the fuck I would drive three hours away just for a haircut. Simply put, Anthony's my guy. He's my barber. No other way to put it, really. Kinda like having a favorite tattoo artist, tailor, or hooker. Sometimes only certain people can do you the right way the way you like it. Before Anthony became my full time barber I would get my hair cut by a man named Ernie, one of the few barbers I've ran across that knew what a ducktail was. He had a shop at the intersection of 21st and P Streets downtown, right next door to the Press Club. After he retired I don't think I saw the same barber twice in a row until I met Anthony. One day in 2008 I got a message from Anthony while cruising the MySpace (whew! remember that shit?). He and I shared some mutual acquaintances, both on-line and in real life. He was working at Eddy's Deluxe, another barber shop in Downtown Sacramento. His message was simple; "Hey Jimbo, come on down for a hair cut, would love to see you". Eddy's was frequented by one of my regular taxi customers, so I just considered it an indirect referral and figured what the hell, why not? I had nothing to lose by accepting Anthony's invitation. After all, I had been without an official barber for about 8 years after Ernie retired. Floating around from one great super clip cut to another. Doing anything and everything I possibly could to not end up in some shitty salon somewhere getting my hair all fucked up by some hot chick that would never sleep with me and had never heard of the Sisters of Mercy, Butthole Surfers, M.D.C etc etc.


I can't say that my first haircut by Anthony was some memorable experience that expanded my cultural horizons or some shit. It was just a haircut. Nice and simple. BUT... I didn't have to explain to him in great detail about the history of punk rock music, where that came from, the various other sub-genres it spawned, and how the way I wanted my look and my hair was all inspired by that culture. He was a young man with a few tattoos that knew a lot about music scenes and the looks that went with them. I gave him a simple description of what I wanted and he nailed it. He understands that most men hate to be perceived as vain. That vanity makes men feel "sissy", or however you might wanna put it. But Anthony has always made me feel justified about my vanity when it comes to my hair. That distaste of vanity by the way, is in of itself vanity. I want to look cool without looking like I'm trying to be cool. I want to walk out of there getting offers for free blowjobs from cute chubby redheads, not laughed at by a group of Cholos. I learned after my first cut by Anthony that he gets it. I was relieved to have finally found a permanent barber once again. He was my guy. My barber.  

Eventually Anthony opened up his own shop in 2009. I was his first customer, something I've always kinda felt guilty about because his dad wanted to be Anthony's first customer. Had I known that I would have gladly waited. (Yup, there goes Jimbo being an asshole again.) At any rate, the last time I got my haircut by Anthony was sometime between late 2011 and early 2012. I was no longer living in Sacramento and it isn't always easy for me to get down there, especially just for a haircut. I tried getting my hair cut by someone here locally in G-Ville. It was a barber shop, not a salon, so that was promising. Older group of guys running the place, which is fine. But I wasn't really all that happy with my cut. No one ever does it short enough. But besides that, they had a sign in the window that said something about "praying for whatever the fuck blah blah blah". Yeah, not really my scene, thanks. Then I just didn't get my hair cut for a really really long time. I should make the distinction at this point that I did not have long hair. I just hadn't had a haircut in a really long time. There's a huge difference! Well I decided a few weeks ago that it was about that time. I was getting bored with the length, and it was kinda becoming a pain in the ass. Even though it would be an ordeal to get to Sac, I really wanted Anthony to have the honors of cutting off my long ass hippie/commie/pseudo viking warrior hair.   

facade of Anthony's Barbershop
LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!
21st and X Streets, Downtown Sacramento
I called Anthony a week ahead of my trip to Sacramento to let him know I was coming. I wanted to make sure that he was still there because one of the last times I talked with him he mentioned that he might want to get out of the barbering biz. Thank fucking Christ he's still there and still has his shop. Not only that, I found out from a friend that his business had blown the fuck up. That he had gotten hugely popular, and to expect a long wait unless I arrived early in the morning. I tried to get there as early as possible, but still ended up getting there about 20 minutes after opening. Boy, my friend wasn't kidding when she told me there was gonna be a long line! There had to be about 30 people ahead of me. So I said my hello's, donated beer to the fridge, put my name on the list, and dug in for the long wait with my friend Paul, who played the part of camera man for the big event (video below). 

I ended up waiting about three hours for my turn in the chair. Probably way too long for most people to wait for a simple cut, but for me it was well worth it. I got my hair done exactly how I like, and it gave me an opportunity to observe all the changes at Anthony's Barbershop. As you would expect with any small business starting out, his shop was kind of slow at first. A few regulars here and there and the occasional walk-in kept him afloat for several months, and business slowly but steadily progressed, eventually gaining enough clientele to add a second barber, Shawn. During that time I don't think I ever had to wait more than thirty minutes for my turn in the chair. I could grab a seat anywhere I wanted and shoot the shit with barbers and clients, alike. I could take my time hanging out, often over-staying my welcome. 


selfie with Anthony
Nowadays however, things are much different at Anthony's. He now has a crew of four (maybe five) manning the chairs. As I already mentioned, the wait can be up to a few hours. But what I found rather remarkable was the make-up of the clientele. Normally when you think of barbershop culture, it's usually the same kind of person frequenting a certain style of shop. Black guys will usually got to black barbers, white guys to white barbers, old timers to an older crew etc etc. Not the case at Anthony's, as I saw just about every type of dude you can imagine waiting a very long time to get their hair cut by someone at this shop. I saw white guys, black guys, Hispanic guys, Asian guys, straight dudes, gay dudes, young men, old men, completely normal looking guys, old punk rockers, greasers, urban warriors, etc etc etc. And ohhhh yes, hipsters! Lots of those, too. But that can't really be helped, they're pretty much everywhere you go nowadays, whether you like it or not (AND I DON'T!). Now, I could be wrong about this because I don't get out much, and my perception of the world is rather skewed because of that, but it seems as though Anthony's has broken through some barriers of barbershop culture. I don't recall seeing as diverse a group of men at a barbershop before. Maybe at a salon, or a Great Super Clip Cuts, but not at a real life bonafide barbershop. And the best part is that it's not as if Anthony gave his crew a "prime directive", if you will, to "diversify for the greater good blah blah blah". It just happened that way. These young men are masters of their craft, do a good job, and are always looking for ways to improve. It's no wonder this shop's popularity has exploded.

Check out his Instagram

The other thing I observed, and I find this rather peculiar and somewhat unsettling, is that no one was talking to each other. Sure, the barbers were active in conversation with each other, but not really with their customers much. But the customers weren't talking to each other, even. Not at all! I can forgive the barbers, because if anyone has ever worked in an environment catering to the public, than you know how it is to look out and see twenty or forty people ALL WAITING ON YOU! At times like that you can become hyper-focused on your work, and having a conversation can be distracting, and even difficult to do. But here you have a group of guys hanging out together, free beer in the fridge, loud music to rock out to, and no one is engaged in any conversation. It just seemed really odd to me. Everyone seemed completely intent on their own space. And I don't just mean that everyone was staring at their phone waiting for a message from a slutty girl on Facebook. I mean that everyone had a determination about themselves. A certain intensity to fulfill their immediate need so they could go about their day and their lives. I tried my best to be social with the group of people waiting, but no one was having it. Maybe it's just because it's me. I'm fairly difficult to look at for one thing, and I'm pretty loud and obnoxious, and probably a bit too forward and engaging at times for some folks to handle. Oh well, not everyone can handle awesome, right?  

Speaking of awesome, I'm really glad to have finally gotten my hair cut, and it was great to see Anthony again after all this time. I asked him about how and why he made the turn-around from possibly wanting to get into something else professionally to being the most popular and successful shop in town. I wish I could write verbatim what he told me, but I can't recall his exact words (there was loud music, I'd been driving all day, trying to catch up with Anthony etc etc). But the general impression is that he had done some travelling, had met some really cool people, and from that he learned a lot about himself and how to operate as a human being and as a business man. (If Anthony and/or Shawn would grant me a weird interview sometime, I could get into a lot more detail about all of this). Anthony has taken to carrying the responsibility of being a good steward to his craft and profession. He's taken charge of himself and his business. He, and his business, have grown a lot! 

I donated my hair, by the way, to http://www.locksoflove.org/, per Anthony's suggestion. Thank you, sir! 


Jimbo holding old hair


Hope you enjoy the video below of my day at the shop!   




 

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