The Haircut

The Haircut
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As is my regular schedule every three weeks it is off to the barber for a trim. It happens that my barber is a bit of a character. Gregory is his name. He is former Russian military special forces. Approaching 65 he is tough as nails and as soft as butter.

Gregory has just buried his 90plus year old Mother. For months he worked all day and then each and every day went to her bed side in the nursing home to feed her food that he prepared for her. It was a very difficult time for him, so much so that he had pushed himself to the brink of stressful emotional collapse. It took him several weeks to grieve for her and is just now back to work.

I was glad to hear that his family has recovered enough to have a very nice Thanksgiving. I admire this man very much. Not only for his devotion to his Mother, but for his resiliency to adversity. He deserves my loyalty and I gladly give it.

The big screen TV had caught my interest. It was a car racing show and the lead up to a two car; one on one race was about to move on to the actual race. I was just finishing my cut. I paid, gave Gregory his tip and decided to take a seat and watch the race.

One of the other barbers waved another patron to his chair. It caught my attention because the man who was a senior was accompanied by his wife. They approached the chair together and I heard her tell the barber that her husband had cancer and his hair was falling out. It wasn’t apparent because the man appeared to have short cropped style as it was. Looking closer I could see the splotchy pattern of the spots of missing salt and pepper hair.

The wife asked that barber what they should do, “Cut it very very short or shave it all off?” Neither could make the decision so the barber said he would crop the hair very short and then they could decide. The barber was being so gentle with them because it was clearly a traumatic situation. As the barber worked, the man was trying to keep a smile on his face while his wife was on the verge of tears.

The race on the TV had lost its hold on me as I was engrossed in the real human moment playing out in front of me.

It took the barber a few minutes to do his short cut. He then looked at the couple with sad and inquiring eyes. They were at the point of making the ‘shave it all off’ decision and still hesitated.

In an attempt to help them I approached them in my most friendly voice said “Shave it, there are so many guys doing it you will look main stream.” I didn’t wait for their reaction. I placed money on the counter and told Gregory that the mans’ haircut was on me.

As I left the shop I looked at the wife, tapped the man on the shoulder and wished them good luck.

I don’t tell this story because I paid for a haircut, but to recognize that everyday people are struggling with many different things and those of us who are fortunate to not be in their situation need to support them. It is awesome how God puts you places were you have a opportunity to grow as a person.

I never did see who won the car race.

This article is presented by Greg Demetriou, a Huffington Post Contributor and CEO of Lorraine Gregory Communications a full service marketing and public relations firm. He is also available via his dedicated CEO site GregsCornerOffice.com .

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