This afternoon I feel like Samson, not when he slew the lion with the jawbone of an ass but as he was after Delilah gave him a swift back and sides and robbed him of all his strength.
Yes, I have had my first haircut since lockdown began. I didn’t even have to leave the house and risk the dreaded Covid19.
As she has done for years, my darling wife Marion sat me in the kitchen and with scissors, comb and a hand sprayer she took great joy in letting my curly locks fall to the floor.
I could have had it cut at any time. Marion would normally say: “Isn’t it about time you had a haircut?” and I would find an excuse to put it off to the next day. After a week she would get her way and my collar length hair would be trimmed.
It’s not that I don’t like having a haircut. For over a decade we used the same barber’s in Bedford Street, in Rhyl, just up the road from Dad’s shop and our home.
As a five-year-old I would be popped onto the child’s seat which was rested on the arms of the barber’s chair and then I would get the standard short back and sides.
In my teens the gaps between the haircuts got longer and now I would say: “Just above the collar and off the ears but leave the thickness.”
Then came the time when I was working and just let it grow for a while taking me from this:
to this:
The second picture was taken when I played Danny, the charming but psychotic young killer at the centre of Emlyn Williams’ play Night Must Fall.
As you might notice the thick dark curls of hair fell down well past my collar and the sideburns could have made Noddy Holder jealous.
I kept the length, with just an occasional trim, until I was about 19 and then I just got bored and had it cut back to the “just off the collar” again.
Just as well I suppose because in 1969 there was another change in my career and a more “ordinary” style of haircut and fashion became desirable. More on that at a later date.
Meanwhile back to the hair.
I had never been that bothered about fashion in clothes or hair. Very much like my attitude to cars which I have always seen as a means to an end.
I suppose I did go through a hippy phase but it did have to be mixed with more conservative clothing when I was working. After all the magistrates might not have appreciated a “wild child”, with flowery shirts and a bandana, sitting in the press box.
Maybe this was all part of my general attitude to life and my belief you should not judge people on their first appearance. Also a “normal” hairstyle and style of dress meant I was just another “ordinary bloke” when it came to interviewing people.
That can often put them at their ease if you have an interview which might put the person you are talking to on edge.
My accent seems to blend in as well. In the north I was always taken as being from “down South” and southerners pinned me down as “a bit north”.
Very occasionally, because people take offence if you go over the top, I might lapse into an accent similar to the person I am talking to.
Acting experience can come in very useful at times.
Meanwhile we’ll just have to see how the hair grows this time. It certainly won’t be as soft and wavy as the pictures above and I doubt it’ll get long enough to keep my shoulders warm.
Still it’s cooler for this hot weather.
Robin's Nest 