“Once in barber school, an older man came in with three of his boys. Two of my coworkers and I got each of the kids. It was 20 minutes until we go home, no big deal.
These boys were really shaggy, and they all seemed to be long overdue for a haircut, We also noticed they seem to not care as to how they present themselves. Pimples on all of them, just dirty necks, with stained shirts. My buddies give a disgusted look, but I’m generally more sympathetic and don’t think twice on it. Although it didn’t take long for us to realize that these kids had serious hygiene/scalp problems, on top of their issue of their smelly clothing.
So the boys are probably 14,18, and 22. I was doing the oldest of them. And he was the worst of all 3. He wanted a simple fade, buzzed on top, with skin fade on the sides. ‘Sweet, my favorite thing to practice,’ I thought.
So I take my out liner to cut it to the skin, and with one pass from the bottom of the neck to midway to the top, I encountered the most FOUL smell I’ve ever smelled in my life. I’ve never vomited in my life for whatever reason, but this was the closest I’ve ever gotten. I was so distracted by the smell and went in for another swipe. There lies this huge MOUNTAIN of god knows what was under his skin. It looked like a pimple. It was white and ready to pop at any moment, and it was just the grossest thing I’ve seen. At this point, it’s not even a minute into the haircut that the instructor who stepped out for a moment came in and realized three of us were cutting some disgusting guys who we shouldn’t be doing. She came over and said we should’ve checked beforehand, but since we started, we can’t stop.
So I felt bad for the guy, and continued. He had many of the same lumps of puss all over his head, so that it just made his head look misshaped. After loads of dandruff falling onto my wrist, feeling like I’m getting sweat from his lumps, my machine was reeking like the devil’s butt. In fact, I think for the following few days, I randomly caught a whiff of that scent that was driving me crazy. I was really angry at the end.
During barber school, I feel like many people hit their lows and think of quitting. I was only 2 months into the 10-month program, and was really reconsidering my intention that night. It didn’t help that the boys’ dad not only didn’t tip, but also tried to haggle on 5 dollar haircuts, saying that the fade or line up wasn’t perfect. Like, Buddy, your fade or line up is the LEAST of your worries when it comes to them. I actually got a little hot-headed thinking back to that day while writing this. In the end, the owner was aware what was going on during the haircuts and wasn’t going to take it from the father. She explained that those boys need to see a specialist for their scalps, and had the instructor not been outside the room when those kids sat down, she would’ve made sure all 3 of us combed through the hair and denied them service. However, since we had already begun, we were obligated to finish.
The following morning, the owner told us, just to be safe, to throw away the machines we used, and he would give us some preowned replacements that were clean as a whistle. He was a great guy, and even gave us a 5 dollar tip each himself for our troubles.”