Old Habits Meets New Scales

[DGilloon]

My barber is Nick the Greek who works out of a basement shop by himself on 44th St between 8th and 9th Avenues in Hells Kitchen. He's got three chairs but for all the years I have been going to him, it's always just been Nick. There are posters on the walls from shows long closed,a calendar from a Chinese resturant and autographed headshots of actors who probably have real jobs now. Can't say Nick "caters" to any crowd but he's definitely old school Hells Kitchen, with waiters and stagehands and actors and operating engineers his clientele.

Nick started out working in a shop that was located in a subway arcade at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. You'll still find those arcades in Midtown, some all fancied up like at Rockefeller Center and some like the pretty run down news stands and candy shops on 7th Avenue. These are run mostly by immigrants from an assortment of countries, all trying to work their families up to the next rung on the social ladder. The stores don't change much but the operators do, depending on which wave of migration hits NYC next.

Nick got his shop on 44th St because the city fathers wanted to clean up 42nd St. which, depending on whom you talk to, probably needed it. I've heard some younger folks say that they miss the “old” 42nd St. If you actually lived and walked those streets then, say before "Taxi Driver", you would disagree. I know that my friend who bears a long scar across his cheek from a mugging does. The city bought out the shop and found Nick a new place with a long-term lease in a basement across the street from the last lumberyard in the theatre district. Nick moved on.

Over the years, Nick knows that I’ll tend to like a “4 on the top, 3 on the back”. I think he’s referring to clipper heads but I’m not really sure. He always does a good job so if he wanted to say, “you want an alpha on top and an omega on the back” I would probably agree. But to sound like I know what he’s talking about, I add, “and leave it natural around the collar”.

Recently I’ve paid closer attention to the razor he uses on the sideburns and neck. It’s an old Tuck Mar with disposable blades. The scales are a plastic that looks like someone set them on a curling iron or warmed them up with a Zippo. Right by the pivot, there is a discolored, crinkly dog-leg that doesn’t seem to either hinder the closing of the blade or Nick’s handy work. But it looks like hell.

Feeling fairly confident of my newly found scale making abilities, I offered to replace them with a new set. I knew Nick wouldn’t want anything fancy so I didn’t promote the new ones as vast improvements, just a little something that might look better. At home I had spare scales that would probably fit so it was just a matter of finding the right ones. A week or so later I stopped by the shop with a set. Nick was attracted to the style, but they where a tad too long and a touch to narrow for the Tuck Mar. Nick didn’t discourage me so I said that I would be back with something else.

Found a shorter set that was a stout tan plastic and thought that by changing the angle of the wedge, I could accommodate the width of the clasp that held the Tuck Mar’s blade in place. Showed it to Nick and we were all set, just needed to take it back home, change the bolt for a pin in the wedge and set up the other pin and washers for the change in the shop. Nick didn’t want to let the razor out of his shop and I thought that changing over to the new scales would take about 15 minutes to peen the blade into it’s new set of clothes.

A week passed before I got back to the shop. I arrived with little tool bag with a hammer and blocks and files and extra gear for spares. But Nick, who has been such a fixture on the street for decades, didn’t get to be that fixture by latching on to every passing style and fancy. Nick was polite but felt that he was more comfortable with the old set of scales and that he would rather that the new scales be kept in reserve in case “something really broke”. Which, having known Nick for as long as I have, made perfect sense. In a city where change is the one constant, it’s nice to know that there are still some things that change slowly, where the feel of a razor with a nice balance that does a good job is more important than how it looks.

I got a “4 on the top and a 3 on the side” today and natural over the collar. I did have Nick take a little more off the top as it was going to be summer soon and I would want it a little cooler. We talked about my bald spot and how it “really wasn’t bad” That started a story about a fellow that Nick knew that began to use some crème for $400 a month to re-grow hair despite advice from Nick and a pair of cops who were in the shop at the time, against it. After six months and no hair, the fellow quit the crème.

Nick refused any money for the haircut. The new scales are in a small box wrapped in paper along with the pins and washers and ready to go when Nick wants them. They are next to the framed picture of 42^nd Street in the 60’s and the autographed headshot of Richard Chamberlain as the Man From La Mancha. My guess is that he’ll take them out and feel them and weight them and hold them up to the light. And then put them back in the box until the next time.

Change will come slowly, if at all.

[EdG]

I love this story!