At the barber shop today

[Ihavehope]

I woke up this morning in a good mood (compared to the last few weeks it was a FANTASTIC morning) and decided to do something nice for myself since no one else will. My mother got flowers from my dad, my sister made a beautiful looking strawberry short-cake for her boyfriend and my other sister was wrapping her valentine's gift for her husband and I was unwrapping my counter pill box to organize my big kaletra and truvada pills. Happy Valentine to me.

I looked out the window and saw snow and decided to skip work since I knew they were probably all gonna leave early. I got my boots on and took a walk to the barber shop and sat in the barber shop for 10 minutes reading the newspaper waiting for my favorite baber (he looks like John Stamos) to finish with one client. All of the sudden the barber took out the razor knife to shave the client and the client said " i would rather you use the machine to finish" and then the barber said " don't worry I change the blade for every client, i know there are many diseases I wouldn't dare to re-use the same blade. Then the barber said " In my country (Russia) many people were getting ill because the barbers over there were re-using the same blades and were infecting people with different diseases. Especially now that there are so many gays in Russia people have been extra careful" I got upset and got up and left, I think he noticed that I was quite upset that he made that comment. I am sure he is a dumb uneducated folk and should not take his ignorant comment too seriously but I was just too annoyed at him. So he probably now know I am gay since I got up and left without saying anything. I was pissed off but now I am over it. If only he knew I was Gay and with AIDS, i wonder how he would treat me. lolz.

[allopathicholistic]

Sorry you had to hear that.    Too bad for the John Stamos lookalike. There are lots of cool gay people and his attitude will prevent him from getting to know what we can offer

[SirPrize]

Universal safety precautions should be practiced (and I applaud all who do) by everyone, especially in the medical and service industries.  Perhaps the patron did not want the razor near his neck due to a phobia of sharp instruments.  I won't go to a barber that uses a straight razor since I was cut by an old fart with shaky hands when I was a child (the visions of Miss Celie in movie The Color Purple don't help either when she was about to shave Mista).

The gay statement was offensive and yes, there are many ignorant people in this world that continue to think this is a gay man's disease.  We all tend to say things that we think are innocent but offends others.  If you like the services the barber provides, I would go back and make up a story that you forgot to turn off the stove or forgot an earlier appointment, etc.

[Christine]

There is still much ignorance about transmission.

That being said, the customer just might not like the way his hair looks when cut with a razor.

I have really short hair, and I prefer my hair cut with a razor, rather than scissors or clippers, I like the way it looks.

When I was first diagnosed, it would bother me when people would make comments that were ignorant. Now, I will calmly give my opinions about what they said.
Christine