Running with shears pt.3

The day started out just like any other, "Good morning ladies!" I say every morning when I check in. I clock in go towards the break room to hang up my coat then a walk to my station to get set up for the day. The day looked rather uneventful and the clock was not in my favor. I make small chit chat with my class mates and ask them how their weekends went, just the usual stuff really. Then I decide to go upstairs and study the material in this weeks theory class. The study of nails, sounds a little bit interesting right? After what seems like an eternity of trying to figure out a way to remember Onychauxis, I hear the call, "Matt your client is in, Matt." I put my things away and headed down stairs. I grab the ticket on my way to my station, and it reads Lacey Spriggs. So I prep for a ladies cut and go out to great her. Well it seems that I was way of the map on this one, Lacey was a man. He could see the surprise in my eyes when he stood up, and just smiled and said "I'm here." "It happens all the time" he goes on. So I re-prep my station bringing out the clippers and making small talk while I set up. It turns out that after some discussion he reveals that he will be receiving an award for his Brother Thurman Spriggs next month at Simpson college. Well my curiosity got the better of me and I asked "What for?" He went on to tell me that it is the George Washington Carver 2010 award, and it was being given to the 12 Tuskegee Airmen from Iowa. I was really put right next to myself, in that instance. He went on to tell me about his brother and how he wasn't able to make the trip from Virginia beach to accept the medal. Well I knew then and there I had to make him look sharp. A bald fade it was, as we exchanged war stories back and forth, I was like a little boy clinging to every word he had in his story. After a great deal of laughter, we continued to talk about the Olympics, and how much he enjoyed them this time around. The time seemed to fly by as he shaped up really quick. He pulled out a dollar and handed it in my direction. I told him that it just didn't seem right taking money from a fellow veteran, but he insisted. I walked him out gave him a firm handshake and told him to come back and see me. I really enjoyed cutting his hair. I cleaned up my area, and thought to myself that I was really proud to have him in my chair. Back up to the books I went. Round two, Paronychia, how will I ever remember that? Lunch time... and we're back. The books say we have 16 people coming in to get their hair put up for some type of student dance or whatever. So I mentally prepare myself for what I was about to endure. See my skills for up dos are really non-existent, but I'm brave enough to at least try and face my weaknesses. I hear one of the instructors downstairs, "a big yellow bus just pulled up, and I'm leaving!" she says. I gather every bit of courage I have and head down the stairs, only to see a big group of special needs kids sitting around. I was a bit confused for a moment, as I had prepared myself for up dos. I went to the counter and asked what was going on, they said there had been some kind of misunderstanding on the telephone. So they all loaded back on the bus and headed out. There was one guy just standing near the counter, and I almost said "you missed your bus". However I did reserve my comment and asked if there was anything I could do, they asked me if I wanted to cut this guys hair. It was down to his belt line it was so long. I gave them the deer in the headlights look after I seen how long it was. They told me it was for "Locks of Love", and immediately, I jumped at the opportunity to cut this guys hair. I better explain a bit about myself here for just a minute. I like kids, I like doing things for less fortunate kids. I'm also a Shriner clown in the circus and my favorite thing to do is hang out with the special needs kids, feed them tootsie rolls and enjoying the circus with them. So I have a huge heart when it comes to this sort of thing. So I told this guy, I need to prep my station and Ill come out and get him. He's a shy guy so he just nods and takes a seat. As I'm preparing my station I'm getting all water eyed, cause I think this just rocks, and I tell myself "Just hold yourself together Matt, its gonna be awesome!" I walked back and got my client and the paperwork and asked him why he was doing it. He gave little response, and just said, he needed it cut and just wanted to donate the hair to someone that could use it. My classmates all gathered around and wanted to watch. We put his hair into a ponytail and cut it off right at the back of his head. We took a couple of pics and Ill try and post them on here for your viewing pleasure. So after the big hacking off of the pony tail we started to discuss what he wanted to his hair to look like now that he didn't have the long hair anymore. He just told me he wanted about one inch all over. Well this guy had a pretty good sized head with fine hair, so I talked him into something a little more fitting for him, noting we can always go shorter if he didn't like the cut. So here we go, talking about what he likes to do, and getting to know Ben was not an easy task. he didn't want to give out any information at all. So I made a couple of remarks that I liked to play video games, and was having a couple problems in a few certain parts. That was all it took to get him to open up and tell me everything I needed to know about this game, and of course once you crack an egg, its easy to get it all out right? So after he told me about his gaming life, I asked him about family, his friends and that provided me all the time I needed to finish out his cut. So when he left he looked like this, I personally thought this was so much more fitting. Okay so the pics of Ben, are above the blog. It just goes to show you, you never know what is going to walk through that door. I cut a Veterans hair that will be accepting an award on behalf of his brother, one of 12 Tuskegee Airmen from Iowa, and a big hearted 20 year old that wanted to make a difference in someones life. I may have been struggling with the study of nails, but I had one heck of an awesome day. I hope yours was just as awesome, and thanks for stopping by!