Would you let a complete stranger hold a sharpened blade against your neck? I did yesterday.
I was sitting in the barber’s chair considering what an odd thing hair cuts can be yesterday afternoon. We wander into a shop to let someone we don’t know take total control of our appearance. Sure we let the hairdresser or barber know what style we want but in the end we have to simply trust that they know what they’re doing.
It was the first time I’d been to this particular barber and he’s one of the old school guys who still uses the cutthroat razor to neaten things up. It struck me as rather odd that I had a person who I’d only set eyes on for the first time just minutes earlier, pressing a finely sharpened razor against my skin, yet I wasn’t at all concerned.
I suppose we have to trust strangers with our safety every day. For instance we get on busses or into taxis with drivers we don’t know without a second thought. We let pilots that we don’t even see take us soaring above the earth.
We teach our kids about stranger danger then teach them to trust certain strangers by our actions.
We obviously need to weigh up the risks. I would have run in the opposite direction if the same guy came towards me with the same blade in the street, but in a barber shop I can reasonably assume that he knows what he’s doing.
Can you think of other times that we trust our safety to people we don’t know? When was the last time you trusted your life to a complete stranger?
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G’Day Rodney – coincidentally I recently had my first ever straight blade shave, I actually found it quite relaxing. Definitely old school!
It does put some perspective on it when you hear the technique referred to as a “cutthroat razor” 🙂
Hello Thomas.
My grandfather died when I was very young and I remember a cutthroat razor amongst his belongings.
These days one blade is never enough. We need two, three or even five blades in our razors. 🙂