I wonder how hairdressers feel about their regular clients...they cannot just leave the salon, never to return!

You reckon you’ve got it bad Sandra!

I have a self-appointed hair cutter – a lovely little old man who retired from barbering about 20 years ago. He lives about 50 metres away from my place of business and calls in every day, (sometimes twice, even thrice), for a chat and a coffee.

One day he comes in and tells me that I need a haircut. He says he still cuts the hair of some of his old customers and that I should come down to his house for a free coiffure. He then proceeds to nag and harp for the next few days until he wears me down and off I go. One short, (and I do mean short), back and sides later, I’m back in the office putting up with sniggering, sly looks and smart comments. I went to the mirror and cast a critical eye over the damage – it was worse than I thought.

My hairline started about 2 inches above the tops of my ears. This hairline extended around my head in a straight line. There was virtually no hair beneath this line, and the little bit of turf that remained above was combed with a severe sweep over resulting in a knife-edge left part! I’d had my first “bowl-cut”. It was that bad I went home early to the bosom of my family, only to be told I looked “retarded” and that all I needed was a bib and braces and I’d look like farmer Jeb from the Bible belt.

Not enough space to go into more details. Suffice to say that I copped another two haircuts since then, both almost as bad. I tried the old “no thanks, I’m growing it long” trick, until I looked like something that crawled out of 1975. I’m now the proud owner of a good, old-fashioned number 2 blade crew cut. At least he can’t @%&** that up!

I’ve had to accept my lot in life. I don’t want to hurt his feelings and the silly old bugger won’t die!

So with you Sandra and Bozzie! I had my first hideous haircut just two weeks from going into high school. From a trendy 70s Carol Brady shag to Julie Andrews from HELL in a few cruel snips, with my mum egging her on and offering to sweep the floor. I looked like a boy for the next six months and had several years of hairdresser angst after that. Non! Non, perm again! At the ripe old age of 43 I have a hairdresser that I can trust (and I swear her cuts make me look as close to Angelina Jolie that I'll ever get). And never bitches about the fact that I dye my own hair. That is a salon angel to me. I think I'm over it. But I just HATE it when they pull out the mirror so you can see the back of your head cut. Like, I'm ever gonna see it outside a salon mirror? I think I would know if they'd scalped me if there's a draught! One day, when I have a hairdresser I hate, I'll pull a bloodcurdling shriek out. But I wouldn't do it to Suzi in case she won't cut my hair again. Do they know the power they wield?

Only a woman could write such drivel. I am in and out in 5 mins, talk about anything of interest with my Greek barber and don't regard a visit to the barber as a social occasion or psychotherapy session.
P.S. I don't wear sunglasses on my head or use a blond rinse. My coffee is not skinny...full Arabica with real milk if I so desire.
Now back to my trireme.

Well, Big Od, i suggest you take another look in that mirror after you take the bag off your head and see that little wobbly bit growing out of the middle of your forehead that your "barber" missed. And tell me it's not drivel or something of a softer, more coiffable substance. Don't come onto this post and declaim this article and our posts as drivel. From your post, you probably can't even tell if your wife's asleep or not. Snip Snip.

You sound like you are probably female, Di or is Di a nom de plume to throw us off course...you're really a bloke? It is nice to receive such a passionate response. Long live freedom of the press.. I would tone down the personal attacks, lest you are removed screaming from this site.

I am just off for my grey rinse and perm. Must tell Georgiou my barber about my problem with my last orange streaks on my sideburns and how my mullet is just looking a bit dated...and the problems I am having with my artificial nails...keep cracking when I remove spark plugs with my new wrench...can't get good workmanship these days..and how about my personal problems..my psychiatrist won't spend as much time with me now...says I am cured..now where's my new Juicy Couture handbag..

Sounds like you're more than just a bad hair day, Oddy, if you want to personally attack posters and authors with such a smug and sexist opening, expect a swing or two with a perfumed spanner. If I was your barber, I'd be taking a few "highlighted tips" (not frosted - that's just so 90s) from Sweeney Todd.

Sexist comments are still allowed,Di. Political correctness has not yet deprived us of the ability to make comments about perceived drivel. Underneath it all, you realise this is female drivel at its best. That is why you react so passionately. Someone has revealed the truth and it gets under your female skin. As for hitting men on the heads with spanners, this is condoned on TV but would be banned if a man did this to a woman.
This is why woman can be conned by gay male hairdressers in New Farm to pay $200 for a haircut when a bloke would refuse to pay any more than $14. It is probably some hard working bloke paying for his missus to go out and spend half his pay packet on such egocentric female extravagance...enough to stop a whole Indian pre-school from going blind from vitamin A deficiency.

The same goes for women's shoes, fashions etc. Women in the west fail to see how appalling wasteful they are while being led by a bunch of gay designers in Paris who say unwearable backless shoes are good for your feet. Now you'd better get off to your next psycho session at the hair dressers, Di.

I wouldn’t think of myself as being self-indulgent, but given a choice between a good stylist and a good lover, I know what I prefer.

Well, Oddity, now women are responsible for third world poverty because they're addressing their hair? what a long bow to draw. I'm sure you're not self indulging in any vanity fair, yourself, as you go to tip the waitress after partaking of your caffe latte (shaken, not stirred,) you just put it back in your pocket and readress it to Oxfam. I'm no Imelda Marcos, but this hairdressing piece originally appeared in SMH Heckler column. Not all posts are meant to be so deep and meaningful that you are to lower your weighty brain cells to it, when the whole world according to you needs be given a good talking to. By the way, sexism is not okay. Not sure what rock you've been living under, but it's a pity someone didn't give it a mullet with a blunt axe.

Timkins, I'm sure you deserve both. May all your loves be good hair days.

Yep, Di, I am afraid thy peroxide faire sexe is responsible for Third and Seconf World poverty. If all that money spent on black roots were used for good rather than evil, this world would be a happier place. No more Third World debt, no more AIDS..just happy children with healthy hair and brain dead hair models from Schwartkopft doing slow motion head rotations for full bodied jet black shiny hair that any testosterone-driven male would find desirable to drag off to his cave and have his wicked way with ...for more healthy-haired progeny.
Now I am off to my MENSA group run by my barber who can do cryptic crosswords at the same time as giving me that stylish number one cut. We have so much in common and so much to discuss each time those shears some out....Oh Georghiou, where art thou?

Od, I've come to the conclusion you must be bald and your unhealthy relationship with hair and the hapless Georgiou is when he trims your ear and nose hair.

Want wrong with nasal hair? It keeps out dust and prevents asthma? As for hair in ears, God made that to keep out insects. Now shaving one's head results in "baldness", one of the great signs of virility. Yul Brunner set the scene. No indeed I have a Mohawk (orange) with sides shaven, so you are off track there in your cyber snooping reconnaissance....way off scent...
Now baldness is inherited through the maternal side so women inflict this wonderfully sexy characteristic on their male offspring to prove once and for all how evil women are and the cause of world poverty. This allows them to hog room and time at the hair dressers under those head things that shrink the already small female brain...a sort of female revenge on men....there are some Ancient Greek tragedies and other precedents Georghiou told me about because being a male he is an intellectual.

I get it with the Yul Brunner, (how folically sexy was he before he was put in the ground!) but more worried about the fact that the likes of Bruce Willis shave as well, how do you reconcile that with your Mohawk. (Long back and sides) My hair now doesn't touch my shoulders because of the weight of the world of women making them slump. Not only a bad hair day but the fact that genetically and morally I am responsible for the decline of western (and third world) civilisation. Hope those insects aren't ladybirds.

I would just like to say as a hairdresser of 16 yrs. I love my regulars. They treat me as family and I them. And Yes I have made my share of mistakes and have been apologetic for each of them and fixed them when given the chance. As hairdresser's are human we do make our mistakes and hope that they are not often and are fixable. But as I always say when your hairdresser has a bad day bad news is you get to wear it. When you have a bad day more then likely it does not carry that kind of responsibility. Although I am grateful I am not in the busines of saving lives I would not want that person to have any kind of bad day:) So I guess what I am saying is please try to know or have a general idea of what you want and what your hair can actually do when you come to see us and know We are always happy to see you:)