But the last decade of skyrocketing rents has routed pretty much every bohemian or louche or plain old funky neighborhood and Polk Street is no exception. Almost all the old gay hustler bars have given way to guys with oversized glasses and teeny tiny hats drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon.
It's Hipsterland: expensive, ironic and grimy.
Pretty much I don't care, they got to go someplace, I suppose, but this week my barber called to say his back had given out and I needed my hair cut and somehow I wound up at the People's Barbershop on Polk at Bush Street.
A temple to hipster's fetish of guy-ism with a hearty dash of steampunk thrown in for decor, if it was any more hip, I would have been issued a monocle and a wool vest. Who am I kidding, if it was any more hip, I would have been barred at the door.
So now I have a $60 haircut I don't like. The sides are fine, but the top has sort of a poufy roll which, considering how little hair I have to work with, is pretty amazing. I look sort of like Julie Harris in Member of the Wedding, but not as attractive. Or butch.
Julie Harris?
ReplyDeleteI picture you more as Miss Jane Hathaway from The Beverly Hillbillies.
That's only because I have Miss Jane's tits.
Deletetoo bad you're so distant.
ReplyDeletei would've given you a smashing
haircut AND the sewing circle discount.
I'm willing to travel, as long as it keeps me out of The People's Barbershop.
DeleteOh, dear - there are few things so dispiriting as an unsatisfactory hairdo. I've dealt with that these past few years by simply not having them, but that's not really a comprehensive solution, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteAnd those tiny hat/elaborate moustache/PBR boys are the same ones who in the old days went in for sideburns/tiny kilts/Doc Martens, aren't they (or perhaps their baby brothers)?
That's exactly who their predecessor were. And the idea of trying to gather my pathetic little wisps into a ponytail is just too sad.
DeleteYou and I must have the same barber. Poor guy, he's really in bad shape. I also went to a new shop, and got a very unsatisfactory cut, which, when there's as little as I have to work with, is saying something. Let's hope J's back improves sooner rather than later, for his sake as much as for ours.
ReplyDeleteDear god, J is hard enough to take when he's not crippled, amirite?
DeleteA punk haircut and a bad attitude . . . .
ReplyDelete... will not take you as far as it used to.
DeleteI'd pay $60 for a hair cut if I had $60 worth of hair. I pay $12 for my balding pate.
ReplyDeleteI think the sixty bucks was for the ambience, which I sort of despised. Add it was dirty.
DeleteI don't know what you're complaining about.
ReplyDeleteI think his hair is cute.
You're just all tingly about them big arms.
DeleteI go to Joe's when I'm in SF. If the good man himself is off, I see Ben, who not only gives a good cut, but also sports the most luxuriant beard I have ever clapped eyes on. Nice guy, too.
ReplyDeleteBetter iconic hair than ironic hair. I've always said that.
ReplyDeleteWell I suppose it beats coming home looking like Brandon DeWilde.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he didn't know what Mrs. Skeffington's curls looked like...
ReplyDeleteNext time take Saki - and tell them to cut yours to match. Hipsters are a pox on mankind, but the tight jeans cuts down on sperm production so maybe they won't breed
ReplyDeleteI went from heavy-metal-head-banger style to the Telly Savalas look a little more than 10 years ago. I saved a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Kate Bush in the Cloudbusting video.
ReplyDelete