When the going gets really tough the tough go for a cheering hair cut
The therapeutic value of a good haircut should never be under-estimated. And this is not just a woman thing. Earlier this year, a male friend of mine — on holidays in Turkey — was most impressed not only by the whole haircut and hot shave routine, but by the burning away of those stray hairs we all get in stray places after a certain age, with the naked flame from a cigarette lighter! Now, it seems, such therapy is being far more broadly supported, and even as a cure for contagion.
I’m referring of course to all the talk about banks, bonds and bailouts, especially in relation to Greece in the last couple of weeks. The headline ‘Ireland revives haircut demand’ was to be seen in all the financial pages earlier this month, followed last week by a proposal to ‘burn the banks’. (Whoever would have thought that Michael Noonan and I would share this interest in matters tonsorial?). Only last weekend the British banks were being urged by their government to take a ‘haircut’ in order to contain the Greek contagion. The rest of Europe is so fed up that they’ve got the GIP, which is the polite way of referring to their problem with PIGS.
