I am going to get my hair cut tomorrow at a barbershop. For years I went to a hairdresser “who is someone whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person’s image”.

My first hairdresser or stylist was a very cool guy. He used to say that with my ear ring, slicked back ponytail and contrasting conventional wardrobe, I looked like an “Eddy Bauer kind of guy with a … attitude”.

I liked the personal stretch of that conservatively rebellious image. That stylist once added blonde streaks to give me a “west coast look” when we were planning to spend time off the coast of mainland British Columbia. That was also a stretch.

I have been attending another hair salon with Mary in more recent years. We joke that the stylist does much better financially on me than Mary; given what she charges and how little time it takes her to cut my hair now that it is short.

The salon produces award winning images of beauty. The staff all look like they just stepped out of a fashion page. Clientele sit before mirrors in various stages of image maintenance and change. Gently used glossy fashion magazines are spread out on the coffee table in the waiting area. Lattes are offered. Coming in the door is walking into an image.

Not an image that fits well for a guy who at his best, might have stepped out of an old Eddy Bauer sale catalogue. Attitude notwithstanding, I just want a simple, status quo hair cut that does not require a major credit card for payment.

A barber is what I need. A barber is “someone, usually male, whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and give shaves and trims beards of men”. I like the part about “any type of hair” which is why it seems more likely that a barber will trim that extra hair growth, you know, in my ears and nose.

I think of it as grooming the white elephant in the room. It is there and it is difficult to deny or ignore.

Male barbers are probably more empathetic about those types of hair. They would not worry about embarrassing a customer by trimming them. Ear and nose hair just are on men of a certain demographic.

While on sabbatical in North Carolina, I went to a “good ole boy” barbershop. My barber finished a hair cut with an ear, nose and eyebrow trim on all his customers with, of course, his disinfectant jar in full view.

The trim was done quickly and skilfully as a matter of routine normalizing the extra growth. It was a service clearly required for that particular clientele as they paged through tattered issues of Field and Stream or tried to out do each other in playing fast and loose with the truth. They all “cleaned up real good”.

It should be remembered that barbers in medieval times performed surgery and did tooth extractions on customers that left them bleeding. Hence the red and white barber pole representing bloody and clean bandages. By comparison, a little snip here, a little buzz there, is really well, quite civilized and modern.

Stylists do not seem to consider ear and nose hair grooming as part of image management despite of how personal an image is. Hair is terribly personal, particularly when it grows out of your nose. Rather than argue my point any further, it is easier and cheaper to go to a barber who might know of what I speak.

Interestingly, all the barbershops recommended by male friends are staffed by women barbers. I wonder how they will deal with the part about cutting any type of hair particularly when it is an issue for many of the men who are likely to occupy their chairs.

Maybe I better do a little trimming before I go just to be on the safe side. A little housecleaning before the cleaner arrives. A hair wash and conditioning before the hair wash and conditioning at a hair salon. Like that. Otherwise I might have difficulty maintaining my image.