A close shave!

Adam McKenna from the Irish Barber Shaving and Beauty School in Monaghan town visited Inver College, Carrickmacross a few months ago [we know... we"re digging from the files for this week"s schools page, but the students insist they"ll never forget this day - see below]. He showed the male transition year students how to shave while his colleague gave make-up lessons, skin care advice and demonstrations to the females. TY co-ordinator Susan Rooney organised the visit. The following account Jim Duffy, one of the students who was shaved, is accompanied by photos of him. In March this year there was a visitor in school. A visitor like no other. He carried a huge chair and a lot of blades he was ..... THE CUT THROAT BARBER. As soon as he got into the school he gave his orders. We had to fill a basin of boiling hot water. Then I was picked for the first job (dramatic emphasis) this was to wet the towels in the water that had just been filled. It felt too much like cleaning to me but you don"t disagree with a man with so many blades. Then he showed us all the razors. The one that stuck out in my mind was the cut throat razor. After this it was my turn to get a shave. As I lay there praying he wouldn"t use this razor, I got a steaming hot towel pasted on my face with the rest of the class laughing as I comically tried to talk. Then to my sheer horror he pulled out the cut throat razor. As I lay there getting my sideburns attacked and my friend Meegan down in the bottom corner shouting supportive yells of You"re bleeding! You"re bleeding!, I just hoped my face would be in one piece when he had finished shaving me. After my battle with the barber, I retreated to the back of the class checking my war wounds, feeling cold and exposed without all the hair. It was my turn to laugh inside then as others stepped up and were sheared. But they seemed to like the idea of being bare-faced so maybe it"s just me. Anyway after the terror and the fear that only I felt, Adam packed up his chair and his blades and drove off. Never to threaten poor defenceless hairy Jims again. Although people said he did a good job... so maybe it wasn"t all that bad. Either way we know his story. The story of a man, a man to be feared. We may not remember his name but we will always remember his cut throat razor. - Jim Duffy, Inver College, Carrickmacross.