Haircuts in the Time of Corona

Stories of Little Happiness - 02

The world was reeling from the shock of COVID-19. Everything, except essential services like grocery stores, came to a halt. Parks, playgrounds, public facilities, shopping malls, restaurants, beauty salons—places we once took for granted—were suddenly off-limits.

Yet here in Canada, people remained calm, composed, and considerate, weathering it all with quiet resilience. 

A scene from the Korean film The Man from Nowhere. Actor Won Bin, shirtless, is shaving his head with electric clippers in front of a mirror. A blood-stained bandage is taped to his abdomen, and the background shows a dimly lit room.
Looks a lot like me—same face, same frame.

There’s a guy I know—well, a few of them, actually—who hadn’t had a haircut in over two months. Their hair had grown wild and unruly. But cutting it themselves? Too risky. One wrong move and disaster strikes. Asking a family member? Just as risky. If the cut goes wrong, the blame game begins. Better to just live with it.

But me? I had nothing to worry about.

For the past 12 years, my wife has been our family barber. Mine and our kids’. She took a crash course in men’s haircutting—a whirlwind three-day program—and never looked back. Of course, her earliest clients were our boys, then just first and second graders. To them, Mom’s clumsy clippers weren’t exactly thrilling. They didn’t say much at the time, but years later, their childhood diaries gave them away. Apparently, they weren’t too thrilled.

On Saturday, May 17, 2008, a child drew a picture of a family haircut scene. The long-haired mother is cutting the child’s hair with scissors, with strands of hair scattered on the floor. The child is seated facing forward, while in the background, the father is sitting at a computer. At the top of the page, the date and weather are displayed in a diary template.
Smart kids—spotting Dad sitting at the computer and thinking, “Now’s the time to strike!”


My wife may not deliver celebrity-level styling, but her cuts have their own charm—neat, comfortable, and wonderfully reliable. Once a month, like clockwork, she trims our hair. Do the math: three heads, twelve years, about 400 haircuts. At $30 per cut including tip, that’s $12,000 saved—roughly 10.8 million Korean won. Wow. That’s no small change.

More than the savings, it’s the joy of knowing we’ll keep saving for years to come. Here’s hoping my wife continues her reign as the official barber of our household. For many more haircuts—and many more memories—to come.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis) - 01

Image
  Preface By the time I had read 166 pages—roughly 48.8% of the total 340 pages—I already felt an urgent need to pause. Even while continuing with the rest, I felt compelled to start organizing what I had read so far. Throughout the book, C.S. Lewis’s insights often burst forth unexpectedly, leaving me in awe, accompanied by fleeting reflections. Before those highly volatile fragments disappeared, I felt the need to preserve them as much as possible. That sense of urgency constantly urged me on, for Lewis’s message was powerful and invigorating. Was this man really once an atheist? It wasn’t until his early thirties that he converted to theism. In the latter half of his 65-year life , he made significant contributions as a Christian apologist, writer, and essayist. He was a storyteller who, having spent the first half of his life in his own world and the second in God’s, “understood God with reason, and felt and expressed Him through imagination.” While reading Mere Christianity, e...
Read more

Birth Rate?

Image
Videos glorifying the joys and fun of raising babies are everywhere. While the intent may be to boost the birth rate, they seem to lack seriousness and sensitivity, which is disappointing. Even when adopting a pet, one must consider whether they have the means and mindset to care for it, and whether they can take full responsibility to the end. Then how much more thought and care should be given when welcoming a human life? The babies who bring such joy and laughter will grow into children, teenagers, and eventually adults. Yet these videos promote only brief moments of happiness, with no regard for the many challenges of living as a child, adolescent, or adult in today’s deeply troubled society. I can’t help but ask: “How many children have you actually raised?” Before promoting childbirth, we must first analyze and improve the reasons behind the steep decline in birth rates. The “next generation” is not just a private matter for families—it’s a collective responsibility of society. I...
Read more

Could I Be a Narcissist?

Image
1. Who Is a Narcissist? A narcissist is someone who exhibits an excessive attachment to and overvaluation of themselves. They tend to prioritize their sense of superiority, desire for recognition, and need for control over the emotions of others. The deeper the relationship, the more confusion and emotional harm they may cause. 2. The Root of Narcissism – The Myth of Narcissus The word "narcissist" originates from the Greek myth of Narcissus . He was so beautiful that many fell in love with him, yet he accepted no one's affection. As punishment from the gods, he became enamored with his own reflection in a pool of water. The problem? It was a love that could never be fulfilled. Unable to look away from himself, he eventually withered away and died or, in some versions, was transformed into a daffodil ( narcissus ) blooming by the water.  Despite variations in the ending, all stories share the same truth: He became so consumed by himself that he ultimately lost who he ...
Read more

An Ant's Everest Exploration

Image
What shall we call ourselves? “Man is the measure of all things.” —Protagoras the Sophist— Are we truly the measure of all things, as he claimed? Here, we have captured what can be seen between one meter above the ground and a space one billion light years away. Let us humbly reflect on the size of the “we” we speak of now, and on what the existence of “we” truly means. Just as an ant takes a step to climb Mount Everest, let us too set off into the vast universe with the small power of science.   
Read more

Yunchan Lim's Performance at Van Cliburn 2022

Image
  I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched these performances by now. To be honest, I was never someone deeply immersed in classical music—not in the past, and not even now. But ever since I encountered this pianist’s performance, something in me began to shift. Even when the pieces weren’t immediately moving or familiar to me, I found myself overcome with emotion, shedding tears more than once while listening to music I once thought inaccessible. And I know—this emotion I feel is, in part, shaped by the visual stimulation of the videos, by the contagious admiration expressed by others, and even by my own self-image, swept up in that shared appreciation. Yet despite all that, his playing—so natural and expressive, so clearly flawless even to someone like me—is undeniably extraordinary. The power and passion, the response from the orchestra and the audience… it’s impossible not to recognize the greatness of these performances. Many of the works he plays are among the most icon...
Read more