Regular readers will recall (I hope) that the last time I had my hair cut was at the new Fergie’s back in October. As this was a full five months ago, my hair was getting pretty long. So was Oliver’s. So we decided that today would be father-son haircut day. And in the spirit of this bold new adventure, we decided to switch barbers: today was our day to become customers of Ray’s Place.

Ray’s has been immortalized several times by Rob; with Fergie in retirement and Fergie’s transformed into an annex of an antique store, I decided we were ready to move up to the barber shop of choice for the elite of the city. And so, at the stroke of noon, in we walked.

It was a wonderful experience. We were seated in barber chairs on opposite sides of the room so that I could see Oliver in the rear-view mirror. When Ray found out that it was Oliver’s first time to a bona fide barber, he brought the camera out and took “before and after” photos of us together. Oliver’s barber, obviously a veteran of the travails of cutting kids hair, was a pro at it; across the way my five months of shag was lopped off with dispatch and a good part of my life story, or at least the part of it taking place on PEI, was relayed as well.

Oliver was a model client — he sat still, did what he was told, answered questions about his favourite foods, etc. $12.50 for me, $7.00 for Oliver and we were out by 12:30. So now we have a new barber. Note to Ray: please don’t retire any time soon.

To celebrate our new discovery we headed down to Tai Chi Gardens for lunch, only to find Sandy and Bailey there. Bailey was looking mop-headed himself, and after some mentoring action from Oliver (including revelations about the wondrous “drawer of lollipops” that awaits child clients), Bailey was sold: Sandy took him right up for his own hair cut.