Felix Is My New Barber

Barbershop 'Tings'

Whenever I start writing this awesome stuff that I write here I often get this urge to start off with this line. I am Wesh, Peter Wesh – you’d get this if you watched enough James Bond movies. And then go on to say superfluous things about me. Like I can play the guitar over the back of my neck like the late Professor Okumu used to do. 

Any-who how are you? How’s life over there? Is it raining? Yes? That’s a good thing. And speaking of rain, it really rained heavily this morning. One word - Awesome!!! 

You don’t get to experience the warmth of a comfy bed on a rainy morning very often. And it happened today. A Saturday! Mother Nature had really good timing today. I am saying that because I slept late last night watching the HIMYM comedy series and today I woke up to the sound of Heavy rain. As you can guess and as any hardworking Nairobian that doesn’t get to oversleep as they would wish would do, I savored the moment. I overslept. It was special. They say the best nights are when you don’t have to set an alarm for the next morning. But you know what makes this even better? Not setting an alarm and then it rains in the morning. I believe I offset a lot of my sleep debt which is a good thing since they - I know you're starting to wonder who is they; I also have no idea - say the more sleep deprived you are the more you act funny. The bad funny that is: the kind that embarrasses you. 

Anyway I don’t want to write about rain, I want to introduce you to my new barber. He is called..wait I forgot to ask for his name but he looks like a Felix so let’s call him Felix. 
 

One more ‘wait’ before I tell you about Felix. I promised a friend that I will comment on their dyed hair. What do you guys think about dyeing hair? Would you dye your hair? What color? I imagine how my conversation with Felix would go if I went over there to dye my hair.

Me: Vipi Boss

Felix: (He has a Kisii-sh accent) Poa. Karibu tena. Tunyoe kawaida?

Me: Zii, leo nataka uniweke dye ya blue! I am sure nitakaa poa na nywele ya blue. I think madame hupenda nywele za blue!

Felix: (Really sure he would laugh an entire hour) Boss kuwa serious bana. Dye ya blue hata hatuna hapa. Unataka nikunyoe aje?

This conversation would go on and eventually I would just have to shave normally. I have nothing against dyeing hair. I think you, my friend, look great with dyed hair. It comes forth as bold to me and bold people are good people. I rest my case there. 

So back to Felix my new barber. Wait – the last one now – so that you understand why Felix is the new barber I need to tell you what happened with my old barber. He was a ka-rough dude with a barbershop just opposite my flat. This ka-dude went to Dubai for a job. You know one of those Saudi jobs that people go for. I used to like him because he was not chatty. Then he was replaced by a tall weird beardless guy. I didn’t like him much. His hands were clumsy mostly. So I moved to this other barbershop over there (pointing with lips the Kenyan way). This new barbershop was okay but their massages were not. They shave you nicely then throw you into the temptation that is engrossed in their massage chair. I hated that place – though I went there kedo 5 times. For the sake of decency I will not divulge the details. So I moved to this very new barber – Felix. 

Felix is very chatty. Five minutes in and I was already exhausted from the 'lengthy' chat. You should know I am not a chatty person, I like to keep stuff to myself and talk when I really have to. Felix did not know this – he just kept going. I wanted to stop him but I couldn’t mainly because he was the one with the shaving machine. He had leverage yo! I guessed if I told him he talks so much – like a girl – he would intentionally screw my cut. And you all know a good cut is important – just like dyeing hair. 

We, mostly he, talked about many things. Sports – I had to pretend to like his team because, again, he was holding a shaving machine over my head – we talked chics, the hood, politics and business. The business part was particularly interesting. Felix now owns this barbershop after 8 years of being employed in other barbershops. 8 years man! He told me about how he mapped for business and worked his ass off to get where he is. It is interesting that he warms his water – to wash clients’ hair – with a Blueband tin. He dips that heater coil inside the tin and waits patiently at a safe distance. I was baffled at first. Who does this in this century especially with such a nice shop setup? Would it kill one to just buy an electric jug? A damn jug! Anyway after he told me his story I just stopped judging him because I am pretty sure next time I visit that place he will have saved enough for a new electric kettle. I will compliment him for it btw.

I should have started by saying that I like the service there. Its in-explainable how it feels to sit confidently knowing 8 years of experience is working on your hair; so reassuring. I will end this post by saying this. I thought of the case of Felix as I strolled back to my flat and I was immediately thankful for what I have accomplished thus far. Sometimes we focus so much on what lies ahead of us and on those ahead of us that we forget to appreciate our own milestones and think of those that are behind us. 

I admired his courage too. He started off something new in a place where he is a stranger to everybody – I will add this – while some of you won’t get the balls to move out of your parents’ house (But they say ‘Mwanaume ni kukatalia kwa wazazi hadi wazazi wana-move out wanakuachia keja). 

Seriously though Felix gave me a little bit of motivation to pursue what I do best and to have faith in my abilities. Let’s call it a ka-reawakening. Did I say I tipped him?

Young, High, and In Love

Can We Be Young For Longer?

           There are many kinds of young in this city. Let’s begin by placing them in two broad cohorts. It’s lucrative to start with Young-good and young-bad but that is pretty much judgmental (which is not among my long list of virtues and vices for that matter). So let’s go with the ‘dumb-me’ kind of young and the ‘smart-me’ kind of young. The ‘dumb-me’ young is founded on the premises of confusion, misdirected-energy, bloated-ego, and loads of bewilderment. A typical ‘dumb-me’ young has a very little sense of life-direction. They know little about everything else except partying. Not that all of us who like good times are #team‘dumb-me’s but still they are a majority of party cliques.

            Then there is the ‘smart-me’ young. This young is exuberant too but in the right way. They live for goals and achievements. They know what they want. They listen keenly and talk less. The adore opportunities and love risks. They sure know the difference between stocks and bonds. They are not yet rich but know how to get to the riches. The savor the nights but won’t forget the gleam and wealth of the day. They are vast about highs but also understand the lows. They never yield to mediocre courses regardless of how luring they are. This young is passionate and intentionally directional. They don’t relent on their course. They know but they don’t have to show they do.

            Ok I know this is starting to sound like a speech but hang on we’re headed somewhere.

            I think you’re also starting to like this young. Probably you have someone in mind. Or better still you think you are in this category of young. Whichever floats your boat man. Moving on, my preferred of the ‘smart-me’ young are the think tanks - the ones that exude the Proverbs kind of wisdom. You’d mistake them for cousins of Solomon.  This kind owns the other kind. Let’s me first loop you in on the young with proverbial-wisdom capabilities. This is the kind that will look at a bird fly above them and they’ll instantaneously get hold of utterly deep life lessons. They see something in everything and no – not in the kind of way you see Pizza Inn and see Pizza. No, they’ll see an egg hatch and they will tell you about the power of breaking from within creating life and the way if you break that egg from without you kill the life. This will end up in insightful pragmatic lessons on growth towards investment and the ultimate rich island-owning lifestyles we all crave.

               So, you’ve been probably wondering where I am going with this, right? Well I have a thing for starting a piece and letting the words curve their way towards a certain gist. Amazing thing if you ask me. It is the easiest way of freeing the creativity harbored in me. Comparable to the feeling of skinny dipping – I never do skinny dipping anymore (story for another day). Now I wasn’t really sure about what the gist in this piece would be at the start but now I know. I want to write about the Young, High, and in Love; and no, not the Sauti Sol’s Isabella thing. Well maybe a little bit but stay with me here. I’m talking of the real ‘young high and in love’ of our society – of Nairobi. Why the young? Well because they are obviously the future of our nation (that sounds political). Why the high? The high because it’s easier to find camel milk nowadays than a young person that does not get high. Why the in love? We all agree love makes people do stupid things, right? So yes that why we have the in love category.

**

                They’re on a rooftop. It is chilly and the clock is edging towards 2 am. There is so much energy – it’s been like this since 10 pm. You can feel the music thudding a mile away from where they’re partying. They have to party you know. Having gone through university for four torturous years deserves a single night of fun. This you have to agree with me. At the center of the rooftop is a small table. On it is a white powder wrapped neatly in a manila paper. They’re sniffing on it one at a time – some are taking too much of it. There’s also booze everywhere – the cheap one mostly because they were short of money to buy anything better than Jameson. Someone’s lying on the floor – a blacked out chic. Many others are dazed. On the edge of the rooftop stands a couple sharing a bottle and deeply entangled in love – or so they think. Another couple is making out behind a water tank – it’s all that matters to them now. As they dance and grind the scene gets obnoxious as the night drifts away. Here comes the problem – this is not a single night of ‘fun’. They know they are going to have many more of these. They desperately want to be young for longer – forever if possible.

**

               I call such a situation a ‘miry clay’ fixture. It is hard to get out. The guys on the rooftop are probably going to be doing this five years down the line – heck even ten years. It becomes a habit. They will want to but then old dogs never learn new tricks. It becomes a cycle. Money comes in and it goes out but leaves them high and in ‘love’ but the young part is not constant – years go by. The sad bit is the rat race that ensues. The high will get you addicted and that means you have to fend for it or it will feed on you. The ‘love’ will be sour at some point – I remember a guy in Roysambu blogging about how the chic they were practicing the ‘high, young and in love’ madness fleeced him to the ground. Can you imagine weeks before your wedding and then she’s out? Terrible!!

            Let’s end with these song lyrics. I quote 

“I still fall on my face sometimes
And I can't color inside the lines
'Cause I'm perfectly incomplete
I'm still working on my masterpiece
And I, I wanna hang with the greats
Got a way to go, but it's worth the wait
No, you haven't seen the best of me
I'm still working on my masterpiece” 

              I am not a genius about life drills. However, I am smart enough not to repeat the mistakes others have done along the way. Can we be the ‘smart-me’ kind of young as we work towards our masterpieces? If you make mistakes let them teach you a lesson but don’t be looped in the mistake. I know you want to be great and change nations but how about you be strategic about it. I sure also hope that we have not seen the best of you yet. Or is getting high going to turn you into a walking dead in future? Finally, we are never going to be forever young. Be fun, do fun; actualize YOLO because this is good for all of us. But be intentionally strategic. Cheers to all of us that realize this!