So I’m running into some relatively painful moments on my mobility scooter these days.
Yesterday was the proverbial last straw.
I started getting straight blade shaves a few years back at a local barber. I’ve loved the pampering of the hot towels, the close shave, plus the conversation with and the concentrated attention required of the barber. I’ve come to think of it as my little version of a spa treatment.
I began doing this about 5 years ago at a local barber shop just down the street from me. It has a step to get into it but back then I could walk much better and wasn’t deterred by it. I very much enjoyed my 2 or 3 times per year shaves there and thought I was forming some kind of friendship with the barber.
It turns out now that I was mistaken…
In the past year I’ve sought out accessible barber shops due to that step becoming a barrier for me. I’ve found a couple of decent places but missed my original spot. So yesterday I was scooting by that shop and saw that the guy that was my barber wasn’t busy. So I rolled up to the door and waved him out so that I could tell him why I haven’t been by lately. I proceeded to tell him that the reason I haven’t been in lately was due to the stoop and that he could easily make his place accessible by buying a $50 wooden ramp that a lot of local businesses were using.
It was then that he said something that both surprised me and hurt more deeply than I expected or care to admit.
He said that my disability wasn’t his problem and that he would not be buying the ramp just for me.
I was quite honestly speechless. I didn’t speak another word and backed away kinda flabbergasted. I guess I was under the mistaken impression that I kinda mattered to him; not just as a customer but as a human being.
I was apparently wrong.
Not that I have a choice, but at least I know now to boycott this business.
It’s called ‘Four Season’s Hair-styling’ at 125 Monarch Park.
I’m not sure if this is a lack of grace combined with some freshly opened wounds that need healing, but maybe you can help me in the boycott too.
Or maybe my best route is to try and educate him around disabilities. My problem there is that I don’t have the patience or the stomach for it.
For now I’ll just enjoy my straight blade shave elsewhere.
It sure sucks to be physically disabled…