Barbershop

I went to one of the local barbershops and sat there in one of the available uncomfortable chairs waiting for my turn. With my receding hairline and greying hair, the experience is more than a chore as one could imagine. The past visit also has been rough with the stylist - the professional term used these days. No thanks. I prefer to stick to referring them as barbers as my previous one was less-than-professional making some unremarkable but laughable jokes about my precious hairline; "Gone with the wind, ah sir; shall I use scissors or a blower to finish", still echoes in my mind. So I switched to a newly opened aka cheaper option. 

 

The rhythmic metal blades of the scissors and the smell of wet, sheared hair were already making me sleepy. "Sir..”, initially gentle voice of my barber broke my slumber party. "Sir", this time the pitch had risen considerably, “SIR, come... come..”. The voice hastened me with a tinge of annoyance only a Sunday morning rush of a blue-collar worker could produce. 

 

Sitting on the chair, I could almost smell the fresh paint and feel the crispness of the nylon-satin coveralls-shawl. Running his fingers through my curly locks of the sides, my barber asked in a fake-friendly tone, "how shall we do it today, short?". I thought for a bit and replied, "medium". Nodding as if he understood my initial predicament, went on with the ritual. 

 

As he was well into the job, I noticed he was smiling a little. I probed him, carefully hiding my prior encounters, "what are you thinking about, that is funny?". He continued working his scissors on the lifted clip of my hair on a comb, "sir, I was thinking about how all of my customers have always chosen medium-cut only. Never chose short or long." I said," that's interesting!". He excitedly shared, "I was reading a book from Kahneman in which he mentions we call this Goldilocks behavior". By this time, he had my undivided attention. "Sir, Goldilocks is when you sandwich the obvious choice between two easy to eliminate options." Finishing up my hair with a noisy jet of air-wash, my barber concluded, "it always gives me an option to do whatever I thought is right for the customer. " 

 

I looked at the mirror, satisfied with my hairdo and shared my admiration with him, "Not bad! You have a satisfied customer." He said, "I know. Thank you". I instantly liked his confidence and his practical application of what he had recently learned. I got up to leave and turned to him and asked, "what is your name?" Handing me a free perfumed wet wipe, he said, "Daniel sir. Please rate me on Yelp, you can look me up from the name of the shop." I smiled and said, "nice Daniel! Will do" 

 

As I walked out of the barbershop, thought to myself, 'someday Daniel will be a brilliant entrepreneur'. I also made a personal resolution to continue going to the barbershop as long as I practically can to discover the spectrum of human interactions.