As I leaned back in Mick O'Brien's barber's chair, I explained to the friendly 27-year-old what I wanted done to my hair: close on the sides and in the back, a little length on top — basically, a shorter variation on the same 'do O'Brien himself sports, sans the burly barber's bitchin' beard. As I have with every barber, stylist and drunken friend who's ever touched my precious ginger locks with a pair of scissors or clippers, I was about to caution him about the cowlicks in the back — ill-mannered little curls that have been the bane of my entire hirsute existence. That's when I saw it. On the white marbled counter in front of a patron a few chairs down, past black salon sinks and multicolored jars holding combs and tonics, sat the real reason I had ventured to the Barbershop: a tall, glistening, deep-red Bloody Mary. "Is that ... a Bloody Mary?" I asked with hesitant wonder, as if I had never seen one before — which, in the context of a barbershop, I hadn't. O'Brien nodded. "Can I have one?" He nodded again and said, ever so casually, as if this were somehow not the coolest thing that had ever happened in a barber's chair in Burlington: "Yeah, man. Coming right up." We rarely recognize the events that will change our lives in the instants they happen. But that first tangy rush of tomato, horseradish and vodka hitting my lips on a dazzling Saturday morning in mid-October may just have been one. Is that last sentence hyperbole? Absolutely. However, I don't know that I'll ever look at haircuts quite the same way again. Which is to say, sober. With the help of his brother, John, Mick O'Brien quietly opened the Barbershop in September behind O'Briens Salon on Main Street in Burlington. O'Briens is the flagship of the family's hair salon empire, which includes several locations around Vermont as well as a cosmetology school, O'Briens Aveda Institute, of which John O'Brien is the program director. Formerly the home of Clip for Men, the newly remodeled space is sleek and clean, striking a balance between modern chic and classic barbershop warmth. But that's not what makes the shop unique. Beyond a floor-to-ceiling glass wall at the far end of the Barbershop stands the Back Bar, which also serves the salon in the front of the building. O’Brien…
As I leaned back in Mick O'Brien's barber's chair, I explained to the friendly 27-year-old what I wanted done to my hair: close on the sides and in the back, a little length on top — basically, a shorter variation on the same 'do O'Brien himself sports, sans the burly barber's bitchin' beard. As I have with every barber, stylist and drunken friend who's ever touched my precious ginger locks with a pair of scissors or clippers, I was about to caution him about the cowlicks in the back — ill-mannered little curls that have been the bane of my entire hirsute existence. That's when I saw it. On the white marbled counter in front of a patron a few chairs down, past black salon sinks and multicolored jars holding combs and tonics, sat the real reason I had ventured to the Barbershop: a tall, glistening, deep-red Bloody Mary. "Is that ... a Bloody Mary?" I asked with hesitant wonder, as if I had never seen one before — which, in the context of a barbershop, I hadn't. O'Brien nodded. "Can I have one?" He nodded again and said, ever so casually, as if this were somehow not the coolest thing that had ever happened in a barber's chair in Burlington: "Yeah, man. Coming right up." We rarely recognize the events that will change our lives in the instants they happen. But that first tangy rush of tomato, horseradish and vodka hitting my lips on a dazzling Saturday morning in mid-October may just have been one. Is that last sentence hyperbole? Absolutely. However, I don't know that I'll ever look at haircuts quite the same way again. Which is to say, sober. With the help of his brother, John, Mick O'Brien quietly opened the Barbershop in September behind O'Briens Salon on Main Street in Burlington. O'Briens is the flagship of the family's hair salon empire, which includes several locations around Vermont as well as a cosmetology school, O'Briens Aveda Institute, of which John O'Brien is the program director. Formerly the home of Clip for Men, the newly remodeled space is sleek and clean, striking a balance between modern chic and classic barbershop warmth. But that's not what makes the shop unique. Beyond a floor-to-ceiling glass wall at the far end of the Barbershop stands the Back Bar, which also serves the salon in the front of the building. O’Brien…