We were at the shops when we came to a walk in barber – and as the husbear was desperate for a haircut, it seemed the perfect opportunity.
His usual barber was closed due to the Christmas break. Having said that, he’d been to this walk in barber several times over the years – being able to just walk in is so convenient!

When it came his turn to sit in the chair, I left him to it and wandered round the nearby stores for about 10 minutes before coming back. Surely he’d be finished by then?!
Not only was his haircut not finished, he was being subjected to torture! Was this a barber, or a barbarian?!
What we hadn’t realised is that the barber shop had changed ownership … and the process was completely different.
Before he knew what was happening, the husbear was being subjected to threading, with the barber tidying up his brow area.
This wasn’t entirely unexpected – barbers often give his brows a bit of a pluck to tidy them up. He’d just never experienced threading before.
At first I thought it was a bit of a giggle – many of us women are all too familiar with this form of torture. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander!
But my amusement soon turned to concern as the barber moved on to his cheekbones and the rest of his face (that wasn’t covered by his fashionable stubble). I could even see spots of blood from freshly plucked hairs.

To add insult to injury, once this stage was done, the barber pulled out what looked like a long handled lighter and proceeded to burn off any hairs in the husbear’s ears (he didn’t have any that I’d noticed) and scorched one of his ears in the process!
What we’d expected would be a quick 10 minute trim became a 40 minute torture session.

It seems our old faithful walk in barber had been taken over by some hip cool groovy dudes with an entirely different approach to the humble men’s haircut. The price was the same, so some might say it was a lot more value for money than in the old days …
Except, at no stage were we told of the new process, and more importantly, the husbear was not asked before the extra grooming.
Are we the only ones that think that the barber should have sought his consent first?