Stories of deceptive looks: Iyke the barber

 

        I walked into the shop and took a seat then quickly glanced around to observe my surrounding. The shop was as lively as ever with people walking in and out every 2 minutes or less. The air was filled with a lemon fragrance that had a strange relaxing effect on me. On the LG plasma TV that suspended on the wall, an action movie was being shown and I recognized the movie as Marine by John Cena. Come to think of it, anytime  a move was showing in that shop it was always an action movie. I looked around for the young man that always gave me my haircut but couldn't find him. I went over to ask the barber that was present where he went to and he said that he(my barber) left for the market not long ago. I looked around at all the people that came before me for a haircut and my hope dropped. It seemed like Iyke (the barber) read my mind and restored my hope when he smiled and told me not to worry that I was next. I had known Iyke for a while now but he had never touched my hair before but I was willing to risk it. As I went back and took a seat, I glanced up at him to observe him a little more.


He stood about 5ft 4" and had a bulky body build. He wore a black tight short sleeved polo that hugged his biceps and on the shirt was written 'your legs look lovely tonight, what time do they open' quite bold of him I thought to myself. On his left biceps I could make out a tattoo peeping out form under the arm of the short sleeved top. His choice of hairstyle was a rugged and tattered looking hair that looked stylishly uncombed. His pair of jeans where a dark shade of blue, slightly sagged and they rested on top the straps of a pair of dunlop flip-flops. Generally Iyke was always looking like what the general public would refer to as irresponsible and rugged  and he always had that look even as he did his job.

A couple of minutes later, he finished up with the Indian fellow he was attending to then gestured to me to come take a sit. I sat down and he performed the usual rituals by placing a thin white cloth around my neck then he swung a purple cloth that matched the theme of the room around my neck and it rested on my body covering me from my neck down to a length below my knees. He took my clipper from it's purse, plugged it in and with one click, it came alive with a buzzing sound. Just as he was about to start with me, the movie that was showing on the TV came to an end. With a hand signal, he asked that I give him some time and I nodded in agreement. He disappeared into the room behind me and I couldn't see what he was doing but as I looked down towards my phone I  heard the intro tune to a familiar song. Before I could fix my mind on which one it was, the stereo helped me put it together as a soft voice sang out loud with the words

....Guess it's true i'm not good at a one night stand, but I still need love 'cause i'm just a man...


I glanced towards the room where the home theater was kept just in time to see Iyke walk out with the remote in his hands. I was confused and I asked myself, Iyke is playing Stay with me by Sam smith? Iyke listens to Sam Smith? Rugged looking Iyke?. It was like he read my mind and to answer my questions, as he walked towards me he responded with the words '...Stay with me!' o! 'cause you're all I need! just in cue with the song.  The 'o' in between was his own personal effect as I detected. It was really surprising hearing him put so much passion into the song but I could see that he couldn't notice the puzzled look on my face. He wasn't making much of an effort to change the look on my face as he paused at different intervals to either sing more or start the song afresh. It was really strange hearing him repeat the lyrics over and over with a deep coarse voice that contrasted so much with the original singers own.

As he styled my hair in the simple low cut I had instructed him, I remembered something I had wanted to ask him since. You see this was the 5th time I had come to his shop and he gave me one excuse or the other about the whereabouts of Chuks. Chuks was his colleague that used to cut my hair anytime I visited the salon up until the last 5 visits. I decided to inquire from him once more where chuks was. I guess I made the right decision by asking because that was when he opened up and told me the truth. He told me that chuks had left the shop because of a dispute they had about his (chuks) lifestyle in the barbing salon. He made me understand that he was the owner of the shop and that Chuks wasn't meeting up to the amount that they agreed on that he would pay each week. However that wasn't what caused the quarrel. It was when a customer complained that Chuks smoked a lot and that the smell of the cigarette stayed with him as he did his job. The customer also complained that it was going to make him stop visiting that salon. This didn't sit very right with Iyke because he had a strict policy against smoking since they served the public and some of their customers could be asthmatic or generally just against cigarettes. However Chuks never listened to him an kept doing it. According to him, after the dispute he didn't ask Chuks to leave but Chuks felt insulted and decided he was better off elsewhere.

Iyke then went ahead to explain to me how he had never smoked before but also made me understand that it wasn't like he was against it or never wanted to try it. The way he saw it, it was a simple case of putting your work first before play and that involved not chasing his customers away because of a habit you can't control. We had a long chat and as he explained to me his beliefs when it came to his general life and work ethics. I couldn't believe his words so easily but the honesty in his voice and eyes convinced me. This was a man who had the look of what the society would paint as irresponsible. Here he was standing in front of me and his heart said a different thing from what his physical looks said. I took my time listening to him so as to gain the much knowledge I could from him and kept scanning him from head to toe tying to match his words with his looks with no luck. He went ahead to explain to me that he has nothing else doing and that the shop was all he had. If he was to loose it then he would be stuck in the rough web of trying to make ends meet....

....Just as he rounded up with me, he carried out the final rituals of his trade by cleaning my head with a hot towel. He sprayed a canister of a hair spray on my head then brushed it out. I got up and took a look at the mirror to see if I had made a mistake by allowing him play with my hair. I still don't know if it was because of his personality or if he was actually good but I was forced to pay him double for a job well done.



As you can see from this story, Iyke turned out to be a totally different person from what his physical looks showed. This is a man who knows when he should work and when he should play. He recognizes his position and tries his best not to compromise it. Lessons? yeah of cause ill tell you what you should take away from this.

1. Never judge a person by their looks, get to know them first before you conclude 
2. Always align your priorities properly
3. Do not joke with the place you feed from
4. Do not bite the hand that feeds you
5. Never let a habit cause you to loose things that are more important
6. Always keep a friendly personality
7. Iyke too dey womanize. lol
8. Finally...Just be yourself!