"So, Nana, what's a gal like you doing working in a place like this?" Raymond Davidson said to the female barber as he sat in the comfortable leathery swivel chair, and he looked at his reflection in the wall-to-wall mirror. A big and tall, dark-skinned and ruggedly handsome young man smiled back at him. Raymond nodded at his reflection, aware of the barber patiently waiting while standing behind him.
Absentmindedly, Raymond ran his hand through his thick dark hair. For many reasons, Raymond felt uneasy about doing away with it. Also, what if it didn't come back? He'd been growing out his hair for just about three years now, and done everything from cornrows to dreadlocks with it, but now it was time for a trim. In a few weeks he'd graduate from the University of Ottawa and wanted to look his best.
Graduation had been looming on the horizon for a long time, and Raymond simply couldn't wait. His father Joel Davidson would be there, along with his older sister Nadine who lived in the City of Montreal, Quebec, with her husband Jean-Claude and their son Nicolas. Raymond had spent five long years studying accounting and dreamed of working for the Canada Revenue Agency. In a place like Ottawa, the competition for jobs would be fierce, hence the need for Raymond to update his look and his resume...
When Raymond walked into Top Styles Barber Shop, the old-school spot in the Vanier area of Ottawa, he definitely wasn't expecting to see...her. He'd been coming to the Trinidadian-owned barber shop ever since he could remember. At first, his father, Joel Davidson took him to the shop, and then Raymond started coming on his own. This was where Raymond got well acquainted with Old Man Joe, the ever-smiling, silver-haired Trinidadian guy who ran the shop with his son Jerome.
Over the years, Raymond got to know the shop and its owners really well, and to him, Top Styles was home away from home. The one place where brothers from all over the place liked to congregate. Sometimes Raymond came in just to talk to the guys, watch TV and chill. Before leaving, he'd always pay for his stay, usually by buying drinks from the vending machine. It cost a bit more than the drinks Raymond usually bought at the Dollar Store or at Wal-Mart, but he didn't mind.
"Black folks need to start spending their money in their own community," Raymond's father Joel told him, on many occasions. That's why he instructed his son Raymond to always buy something whenever he came to chill at the shop. Old Man Joe had a business to run and Raymond understood that. All of those reasons explained Raymond's shock when he came into the store and didn't see the Old Man Joe or his son Jerome, but instead there was this older, Arab-looking lady cutting hair. Had Raymond walked into the wrong place?
"Old Joe the owner is sick, and in his absence, I'm running the shop," said Nazanin "Nana" Hessabi, replying at last to Raymond's odd question and snatching him out of his internal monologue. Casually the female barber in question she pursed her lips, waiting for the inevitable barb about someone from her Persian background working in a barbershop. It never came. Raymond looked at Nana and nodded sagely, and then selected a style from the picture catalog that Nana handed him.
"Alright, ma'am, I've selected the bald fade style," Raymond said, and Nana nodded, and then laughed. Raymond bit down a hasty reply and forced himself to be cool. It's one thing for him to show up at his favorite barber shop and find the owner absent and some random foreign gal working there like she owned the place. It was another thing for the foreign gal in question to laugh at him...
"I'm not laughing at you, my friend, I just don't like the ma'am stuff, I'm not that old," Nana said, smiling, and Raymond nodded and forced a smile. He knew better than to ask about the lady's age, since everyone knew most women were sensitive about this sort of thing. Raymond couldn't understand what the fuss was about. He was twenty three years old, and damn proud of it. In a few weeks he'd have his accounting degree from the University of Ottawa and hit the work force...
"No worries, Nana, you look good," Raymond said, and he flashed her a bright grin in the mirror. Nana smiled at him and winked, and then took out the scissors. Raymond felt a pang of regret about slicing off his locks, and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Nana seemed to pick up on his malaise and stopped immediately, a concerned look on her kind of beautiful face.
"Is everything alright?"Nana asked, and Raymond sighed, and then explained himself. He didn't want to do away with his locks completely, and asked Nana to trim the sides, and the back, leaving enough hair on top for a stylish Mohawk. Upon hearing that, Nana beamed and smiled understandingly. Raymond smiled in relief as Nana put away the scissors, and took the razor.
"Hmm, Raymond, I must say, a lot of you brothers look so beautiful with long hair, I'm glad you picked the Mohawk, Raymond," Nana said, half an hour later, as she handed Raymond a small handheld mirror. Raymond nodded and turned his head this way and that, admiring his new haircut. He looked like a cross between Hollywood legend Mr. T and that Black British boxer, world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Not a bad look, not at all.
