It is hard to find a good haircut these days.  I had a great place in California that not only cut my hair but offered a free neck massage after each cut.  Moving to Missouri opened up a can of worms trying to find a good place.  I went to 2 places in town that I now refer to as the butcher shops.

After several bad haircuts I found a great place, where I not only enjoy the atmosphere but the people are awesome as well.  Many times I do not like talking when I get my haircut because the stylists do not seem genuine.  The conversation just seems pointless to pass the time, “So how about the weather today…..”.

At this new place, I really enjoy the company of all of the barbers and stylists and most importantly they remember me!  They remember me not because they have some computer system with the details of my last hair cut, they remember me because they care about their customers!

I knew I could trust them to cut my sons hair for the first time without the fear of a nuclear tear meltdown.  Michael, my son, had a bit of a fit at first, but after the first couple of minutes he calmed down.  It was bitter sweet seeing his baby hair fall to the ground.  We had let his hair grow for 18 months without cutting it, we would occasionally trim his bangs to keep it out of his eyes.

I like these milestones, they may seem menial to anyone on the outside reading about this.  A haircut has a whole new meaning when it is your first one.  You obviously wont remember it, but your parents do.  Heck I can remember Michael’s first sneeze, his first cough, his first time rolling over, his first time doing nosey nosey after his magical little kisses.  I don’t remember any of that about my life because it was never important or maybe it was the short attention span.

I try to wrap my head around this all the time, it is hard to explain without really feeling it though.  The sad thing I have come to realize is that I never truly understood how important I was to my parents until I became a parent myself.  All the crap I put them through, and all the crap they took because they saw me as I see my son now.

All of these thoughts and emotions spurred over a silly haircut, see what parenting does to you?

Blake Rudis

f.64 Academy and f.64 Elite are the brainchildren of Blake Rudis. While he is a landscape photographer, he is most passionate about post-processing images in Photoshop and mentoring others.

For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!