Those of you who’ve seen me around town lately have probably been wondering to yourselves, “Is Paul EVER going to get a haircut? His hair’s been looking mighty scraggly lately.”<\/p>\n

The answer is yes. This week. I’m going to a new stylist at City House Salon in the South Main district. And yes, I know my hair looks scraggly. It hasn’t been cut since November 2. For those of you who really have NOTHING better to do than read this blog, here’s a recap of my hair in 2006:<\/p>\n

For most of the past year, I gave the stylist I’ve been going to carte blanche<\/span> to do whatever he wanted with my hair. Generally this is what he has done:<\/p>\n

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The pic above was taken in mid-April, at the downtown crawfish festival. I won’t even venture a guess how many beers I had consumed by the time this pic was taken. I sure like to wear that shirt a lot, don’t I?<\/p>\n

Anyway, that’s the way he cut it for most of the past year. I got my hair cut in May, then again on July 6 (I know that date because it’s the day after the Romanians returned to Memphis), let it grow for about eight weeks which is typical between haircuts, then made an appointment in early September.<\/p>\n

“All right,” said the stylist. “This time we’re going to cut it a little bit shorter. Not SHORT, because I know you like hair, but shortER.”<\/p>\n

I vetoed his idea. “Not this time,” I told him. “Halloween is not far away, and I need my hair to be long enough to wear in pigtails for my costume, as a Flying Saucer waitress.”<\/p>\n

He thought it over for a minute. “All right, but JUST THIS ONE TIME,” he said. I assured him that after Halloween he could do whatever he wanted. So he trimmed my hair up but didn’t take any length off.<\/p>\n

By late October, this is what my hair looked like:<\/p>\n

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Yes, I know what a complete doofus I look like there. I was posing a question to my blog readers, asking why Asians often make the V-sign when they pose for photographs. Anyway, by this point it was long enough to put in pigtails, I dressed up as a Saucer waitress and made $29 in tips, and after Halloween was over I made an appointment to get a haircut, on November 2.<\/p>\n

Reaction to the new haircut was mixed. A lot of people said, “Great haircut, Paul, it looks MUCH better.” But there were also a lot of people who said, “NO! You cut your hair? WHY??? It looked so good long!”<\/p>\n

Five days later, my friends and I decided to try EP Delta Kitchen, which had just opened. We took some pics and when I downloaded them, this is what I saw:<\/p>\n

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As I looked at that pic, I thought to myself, “You know, I’m starting to agree with the people who liked my hair better the way it was before.” The haircut I got on November 2 was a very good haircut… for someone else. It just doesn’t fit my personality, I think.<\/p>\n

Around that time, I picked up a copy of the Downtowner magazine and flipped through it. There was an ad for City House Salon, which had recently opened, and I recognized one of the stylists’ names – I had met her in 1995 while at Club Six-1-Six for their Sunday disco night. The next day was the start of Spring semester classes, and her sister turned up as one of my algebra students at the U of M. I’ve been friends with both sisters ever since, even though I only bump into them around town occasionally.<\/p>\n

So, I made a decision to give the sister who is a City House stylist a try next time around. But I needed to get my hair to grow back out long enough for her to have something to work with. So I resolved not to get another haircut until at least February 1st, and I’ve beaten that resolution by more than a week. I called City House and made an appointment for Wednesday – “bring chocolates,” the girl on the phone said. She could tell I was confused and added, “Just kidding… Wednesday is Valentine’s Day, you know.”<\/p>\n

The good thing about the modern era is that I can construct visual aids using my computer. So, since she’s never cut my hair before, I’m printing out some photos. I have the April and November haircut photos shown above with “too short” next to them. Then I have the following photos:<\/p>\n

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These are listed as “minimum length from now on.” The first photo was taken for the RSDM website, and was taken about 7 weeks after I had gone in for a haircut. The second photo was taken about 7 weeks after the next haircut. I’ll have to be clear that in the second photo, I’m referring to MY hair as the minimum length, and not my buddy Chad’s. It was his plate party that night. I was about as wasted that night as I was at the crawfish fest.<\/p>\n

I also included one which I labeled “maximum length”:<\/p>\n

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That’s how my my hair looked in early 2001, right after I moved back to Memphis from San Diego. It’s about as long as I’d ever want my hair to get again. No plans to grow the goatee back.<\/p>\n

When I was home in Little Rock for Christmas I told my mother of my plans to grow my hair longer again in 2007. “Some people like it short, others liked it better when it was long,” I explained. “But the important thing is, I have to like it.”<\/p>\n

“Well,” replied my mother, “The important thing is that your employer<\/span> likes it.” This is one of these issues on which my mother and I are about 10,000,000 light years apart. In my world, if my employer disapproves of my hair, then it’s time to get a new employer, not a new hairstyle. Fortunately it’s not an issue with my current job, or anyplace I’ve worked in the last decade.<\/p>\n

So by the end of this week you’ll see me with shorter hair. SLIGHTLY shorter. At least, hair that doesn’t look like it’s just been through a tornado.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"