All this talk of haircuts reminded me of a picture that I received several years ago from my friend Serpico. As it so happens, Serpico and I collaborated on bringing a previously unknown hairstyle into existence, which I called "the Sunflower." Basically, the idea was to take the Mohawk, and turn it sideways so that you had a strip of hair running across the top of your head. Then, the strip of hair would continue down the sideburns, under the chin, until finally you have completed the full 360 and your face was in the middle of something that looked like... a sunflower!
Serpico was very interested in this idea. After we discussed what this would look like, he decided to take a poll to determine whether he should end up getting the haircut or not. Since our friends knew Serpico well enough to knnow that he would go through with the haircut if we voted for it, people took their votes very seriously. Eventually the vote came out an even 12 in favor, 12 against. (I can't remember how I voted... probably for it. Maybe I abstained.)
To break the tie, Serpico determined that we should enlist the opinion of Lawrence Ferlinghetti -- founder of the City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. We attempted to get in touch with Mr. Ferlinghetti several times without success, and when the matter came to a rest, Serpico ended up not getting the haircut.
Soon afterward, Serpico and I graduated from college and headed our separate directions. And that seemed like the end of the story. However, about a year later I ended up getting this picture emailed to me:
Posts
4 comments:
I completely love this guy.
As the "stylist" who ultimately gave Serpico that haircut I have to confess mild disappointment in the final outcome. His hair was really too short to give the full effect. The original idea, as I recall it, was to dye the hair yellow and spike it with wax so that it truly resembled a sunflower.
The postscript to this post is that, the day after getting this haircut, Serpico went to work in an Oatmeal factory with a rather conservative bunch of people. He tried to wear a baseball cap to cover the haircut but one old fellow told him to take it off, which he did.
"On second thought," said the old guy upon seeing The Sunflower, "put it back on."
that is a thing of beauty.
aaron -- I think that I had completely forgotten that you were the "stylist" behind the sunflower cut.
I think you did a fine job, sir. I recognize that there were limitations to how far you can go with the full-blown sunflower cut -- perhaps after I grow out my hair to horse-type lengths we can finally realize the sunflower 'do's full promise and potential (with Lawrence's blessing, of course).
Post a Comment