A coworker, let’s call him Gordon, showed up the other day with an odd-looking haircut. His hair is usually pretty short. Now his hair has shaved back and sides and sorta long, for him, on top.

I’ve seen weirder haircuts before but not on Gordon. Having grown up in the 70s and raised 2 boys in the 80s and 90s, I’ve stopped being surprised by hairstyles. With that and because I’m a really nice guy, I didn’t give Gordon any grief.

Later, however, Gordon said that his hair only looked that way because he let his brother cut his hair. Apparently, Gordon’s brother knows how to work the shaver but not the scissors. For me, this was good news. Gordon’s hair didn’t look stupid because Gordon had poor taste. Gordon’s hair looked stupid because he let his brother cut it. This meant that I could make fun of his haircut without being a (complete) Richard.

I was working with Gordon later when he made a minor silly mistake. I asked him if he was trying to look as stupid as his haircut made him look.

At least he laughed.