I am not now, nor have I never been, a member of the Commun…oh wait, wrong denial speech. I was GOING to say that I’m not a style maven in any way, shape or (literal) form. I don’t dress well, I’m not built for showing off clothes, and I don’t have high-end manners. On a good day, I’m a schlub.

That doesn’t stop at the body or clothes, it continues up into my hair. I had bowl cuts as a kid, with my father using his skills from the Army to give us various hair cuts. I really don’t know what happened in earlier years as he did a decent job sometimes in the teen years, but from about age 16, I just went to the barbershop and paid with my own money. And that continued right up until Covid.

For Jacob, we’ve never been ones to try and cut his hair. Why traumatize him when we can take him some place that has videos on TV screens right in front of him to distract him? Chiquicuts covered us for a long while, but he outgrew them, and most of the time we go together to a place like First Choice and get it done some night when nobody is busy. Or a Sunday afternoon. Similar cuts for both of us, quite short, above the ear, square back, high bangs, lots of clipper action. He likes it, I like it, but if he wanted a Mohawk, I’d probably get him one. He doesn’t, he likes low maintenance like I do. Until Covid.

We waited until our hair got long in April/May and then did the home special with Andrea cutting mine, and mostly me cutting Jacob’s. Mine was a bit rough, but fine by me, and Jacob’s turned out passable as our second attempt.

Yet things are open again. We COULD go. But honestly, do I REALLY care if my hair isn’t perfect? Only my work team really sees me on Zoom, and half the time I leave the camera off to increase stability of the network. Jacob is in the same boat, he doesn’t really go anywhere and his last haircut at home turned out really well in his view, he was quite happy with it. I gave him the option of considering going out, but he said that we should just do it at home.

And to be honest? I was willing to let him go as a mild risk if everyone is masked, but I wasn’t loving the idea. Risk goes up with proximity and time with other people who aren’t in your bubble, and you can’t do haircuts without both of those violating the normal social distancing routine. Hard to cut hair from 6-feet away, and you are literally breathing in the other person’s air as they get close to your head. And while everyone says, “Yeah, but you’re wearing a mask.” Yeah, a mask sewn together by your friend, not a PPE device that actually blocks any water molecules. Ever worn a scarf or balaclava and breathed out while it covered your nose and face? It still steams up the air pretty strongly. The cloth masks work, but they’re not PPEs. There’s a reason why doctors and nurses are not just throwing on a cloth mask.

But I digress. The point? We chose safety over style. Are our resulting haircuts as amazing as we could get from any barber in Canada? Nope, not really. Andrea did a good job on mine, but my head is a bit misshapen, and you can see it very clearly on top of my head. It’s like there’s a sunken area and when you do a general clipper cut, it contours to the shape of your head more than a scissors-based cut would likely do. Jacob’s turned out okay, but not as good as the last time. I feel like the sideburns didn’t cooperate as much as the previous time.

On the positive side, the clippers have now paid for themselves in terms of the money we’ve saved on four haircuts (Jacob and I x 2 each). Definitely on the savings side of the equation now, baby! I’m curious to see Jacob’s choices when we get back into regular outings if/when there’s a vaccine. For me, I’m fine either way. I’d just prefer that when Andrea’s cutting my hair that she would stop saying “oops” so often; it is VERY disconcerting and not at all related to the final outcome.

In the meantime, today I choose to prioritize safety over style.

What choices are you making?