May!

Good afternoon/evening/stock salutation,

Grad season and pre-summer rush are upon us, so it’s busy - as always, plan ahead. You may have noticed I’m booking about a week out, so if you snooze, you may lose. (Reminder that I can lock you in on a recurring schedule, making it easier on you and me both. Set it and don’t forget it.) 

If you have a graduate, congratulations and good luck with the emotional rollercoaster. I know I went on one when my oldest graduated last year. And if you’re the one graduating, congratulations on having to pay for your own haircuts from now on!

Last weekend was Mother’s Day, I hope you celebrated the mother of your children, if you have any. If not, I hope you called your mother. Or, if she’s not with us anymore, you thought of her. Or if she was a person you’d rather not think about, you can always think of Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham.

Now let’s get down to wasting your time.

Seth’s Styling TIps

Itchy, flaky scalp? Dermatologists hate this one simple trick! Dry your hair better. And your beard. Most of us towel dry enough to not drip, maybe put some product in, and go. But letting water sit on your skin (especially if your hair is thick or dense, thus preventing it from air drying quickly) can do damage.

When I was bartending my fingertips and cuticles would get cracked and sore from being constantly wet (cutting limes was fun), and a scalp is no different, if not more sensitive. See also: Trench Foot. So dry your scalp, and if it’s itchy, try to keep lemon and lime juice off of it. Not only will it sting like a bugger, it’ll help the sun bleach your hair. (Which could be a fun experiment if your scalp is healthy enough to try.) If drying better fails, I sell Groom Hair Serum that really helps me when I don’t follow my own advice.

A hair dryer diffuser will dry your hair fast without getting it all poofy, making you look like George Michael. Search up “Universal Hair Dryer Diffuser” wherever you shop online and they’ll fit most dryers. They’re like $20ish, and it’s worth it. Put it right on your scalp, low-med power, low-med heat.

Seth’s Soapbox

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! I know, we’re all aware of it by now, but talking about it helps. I, for one, am glad that the stigma of men talking about their brains is going away. As I’ve mentioned before, I consider it an honour when a guy will talk in the barber chair about what’s bringing them down, be it home life, work life, society in general, whathaveyou. I’m no therapist but sometimes you just need to vent, and that’s what the barber chair is for, and a big reason why I’m happy to remain a one-chair shop.

Here’s my unsolicited opinion that I reserve the right to, since this is my newsletter: 

Mental healthcare should be part of our universal healthcare. If everyone was allotted at least one hour with a therapist each month, imagine how much better our society would be. If we had better ways to deal with the life that life throws at us? There’d be a lot fewer people living on the street, a lot less people resorting to drugs, less people clogging up emergency rooms, wasting resources, etc. I could go on for days. But people don’t go to therapy because most of us don’t have an extra $200+ per month to go out and find a therapist ourselves. Obviously it wouldn’t clean the streets immediately, but if we’re better, we raise better kids, and it trickles down. It’s one trickle down effect that actually works.

However, there is the Primary Care Network, which you can self-refer to. You can get 6 or so sessions with a counsellor/therapist/whomever for free. I did it and it got me through Covid. Which led me to saying “alright screw it, no more moping, let’s get at it” and going to barber school. And here we are.

Related: I recently needed a break so I took a 4 day weekend and it was amazing. Did nothing but read a lot, write a little, and hang out with my kids. Could not have been better, and it was only an extra 2 days off. So use up your sick days. Not taking them isn’t a flex. Not suffering from burnout is the ultimate flex. Sick days include just needing a damn break. And if you don’t get PTO like myself, well, it’s worth it. I missed out on 2 whole days wages since I don't get sick days, but I feel much better. Take care of yourself. Sometimes turning off your phone notifications is self care. Getting a haircut is self care. Getting ice cream is self care.

Here's a new idea: Submit your questions! Do you have a hair or barber related question that you keep forgetting to ask whilst in the chair? Ask away by emailing or messaging me and I’ll answer in the next newsletter. You could be doing someone else a solid.

Please don’t forget there’s free parking in the back! Park along the wall beside my old blue Civic, I pay for an extra spot just for you. Those meter maids are hungry vultures, and they’re ruthless. The street is free after 4:30 and on weekends. So keep your dollar instead of giving it to the city, we all know they’re not using it for anything useful.

One could compare Red Deer to a hockey team. We’ve never had success like the Canadiens or even Edmonton, but we used to do alright for ourselves, more wins than losses. We’ve been in a bit of a multi-decade rebuild, though. All the best players left, and jersey-wearing attendance has dwindled. New people buy tickets and say, “I hear they’re a solid, scrappy team”, then leave before the 3rd period, shaking their heads. Ownership has changed the front office a few times with similar results, has promised that they’ll get some big names to come play for us before leaving for bigger markets, and the team tries to look like they're doing something by getting new washroom signs. We know we’ll never win the Cup, but it would be nice to see some wins every now and then. We make the highlight reel occasionally but it’s usually for drunken fights in the stands or players breaking their ankles on subpar ice. Management tells us they hear our concerns and are oh so close to signing that goal scorer (with no cap space), but for now the best they can do is close some washrooms and increase concession prices. We season ticket holders continue to go to the games and sometimes stand up to clap for a goal, but the wins are few and far between. We can hope for a good draft but they usually trade away the picks before we get there. And they charge for parking when it should be free.

Anyway, thanks for reading all of this. I'll do better next month.

Love you, you’re handsome/pretty/cool.

Your Second Favourite Barber,

Seth