I've developed a love-hate relationship with getting my hair cut. I love the time where I don't have to worry about it, and hate having to go.

I'm not sure why this is. Could it be that I'm angry with the inverse relationship between the price and the amount of hair I have left to cut? Is it that the barber chairs seem to be getting incrementally smaller? Or perhaps it's the growing insistance by the person doing the cutting to introduce some sort of "product" into my hair that, in an earlier time, was used to dope the canvas that covered airplaine fuselages?

There are moments when I think it's due to the increasingly impersonal relationship I have with barbers. During my formative years, my mother (who went to hairdressing school, though by the time I knew her she'd left the trade) would cut my hair. Round about junior high I was transitioned to the local barber shop, where I would have my hair cut for well nigh the next decade by a chummy group of locals. I eventually moved on to a barber shop on the BU campus, where the barbers change more frequently.

The counter-argument here is that I really don't care for chatter. I've never cottoned to the "some weather we're having" school of customer interaction. Even at home, where topics were more familiar and there was an actual relationship between me and the barber, I tended towards a parsimony of words.

It could be my general disdain for grooming. OK, that doesn't sound right. What I mean to say is that I'm not the sort of person who luxuriates in a hot bath or packs mud onto my face. I take a quick shower, shave every other day, use the appropriate anti-stink products, and that's about it.

I also seem skittish about the whole payment thing, as I feel a little awkward handing the barber a wad of bills. I'd be much happier if it was handled like a restaurant, with a little portfolio for the bill. Heck, I don't even think my current place takes credit cards.

Changing barber shops was something I tried some time ago, but found that I was subjected to even more chatter and even more pushing of "product" than at my relatively old-school establishment.

Something tells me I won't be happy until I can shave myself bald or lose that last shed of self-respect and scour eBay for a Flowbee.