This is Tommie - You know It costs 10 dollars to touch me after I get a haircut.

Anyone that knows me in real life knows that I can be a tiny bit cocky. It comes and goes but I am usually the cockiest right after I get a haircut. I tend to be meticulous about my hair and there is a reason for that. As I said Jason pretty much had it in for me, or at least in my mind. Because we moved around so much and we always lived around white people my Dad always cut our hair. This was never a problem I mean in reality he did a good job; he kept us in the latest styles and stuff. I mean if we wanted a shag we got a shag. If we wanted lines in our hair he gave us lines. You wanted a flattop then you got a flattop it was all to the good. Well, when I was in the tenth grade Jason would call me names like trapezoid head or say things like hey it looked like someone cut your hair with a protractor and ruler and all the kids would laugh.

Very funny motherfucker.

When he said that I swear to motherfucking God I wanted to jump across the fucking desk and skin his motherfucking face off with a God dammed plastic knife. It wasn't so much that he was talking about me but it was the fact that he was talking about my Dad and my Dad's abilities. You can talk about me if you want that is fine I don't really give a shit but when you talk about my family I can enter another state of mind. One I don't particularly care for; it makes the illogical seem logical.

I had a choice; I could either remove his beady eyeballs from his melon with a plastic spoon or ask my folks to let me go to the barbershop. I remember that day, my Dad came home from work and we were sitting around just having a regular Hustle family day. I was so nervous. I spent the whole day trying to gather up the strength to basically say Dad you aren't good enough. So when my Dad got comfortable I said to him. Look Dad I got people at school making fun of my haircuts the call me names like geometry head and stuff like that. I need to go to the barbershop and start getting my haircut like the other kids. I could see the shock in his face. I think that hurt him a little bit. I know it hurt me to say it but I felt much better after I did.

My brother and I ended up going to my Mom's unisex salon for a bit then we started going to another shop called C&C. As soon as I started getting my hair cut from real barbers. Jason stopped talking about that particular aspect of me. So like a proverbial Samson I gained power from my hair. I was damn near fanatical about it every two weeks on the dot I was at the shop. When I started going to college in Nashville, I had my parents come pick me up from school or I'd find someway back home pretty much every two to three weeks max to get my hair cut in Atlanta. Once I finally realized how cost ineffective that was I got a barber in Nashville. At this time what I would consider the prime of my "activities" I was getting a haircut or a trim or a lineup every 4 days. I would probably still do it today if haircuts didn't cost so damn much in Phoenix.

As a matter of fact whenever I’m in Atlanta I go to the same barber I did when I was in the 11th grade even though he cuts at a different shop. That guy has been instrumental in my life plus he is funny as hell.