New Year Resolutions

May I take this opportunity to say welcome to 2011 and to express my hope that you all enjoyed a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. It’s been a while since I wrote a blog due to unforeseen delays in my trip to Berlin caused by a dumping of snow at Heathrow and of course the festive period. Maybe one day I’ll write a comic novel about my journey back through Europe in my attempt to be home in time for Christmas – it was very “Trains, Planes and Automobiles” esq…
I believe in my absence you have been entertained by one of our loyal clients Benedict Brookley-Stone who I am indebted to for keeping our little blog project going smoothly. If any of you readers would also like to send in anecdotes either about Pall Mall Barbers or indeed anything to do with grooming please – feel free to send them to me at pallmallbarberslondon@gmail.com – I’d love to hear what is on your minds.
So it’s a new year and a chance for new beginnings. I’m sitting in a coffee shop around the corner from our beloved barbers, drinking a slightly more expensive cup of coffee in comparism to last year due to a hike in VAT and am contemplating the dreaded yet pointless subject of New Year Resolutions. I am as guilty as everyone else at setting myself targets which are never met, at least I have been in the past. I believe I am now wiser and probably more cynical to fall for a foolhardy idea, though in previous years you would have seen me standing in line to give away my money to an overpriced gym with posters of rippling muscled Adonis’ adorning the walls with the claim that, “only 3 hours of training a day can have you looking like this”. I wonder what the poster would look like if the subject had followed my training regime of 3 hours a month (that being a particularly productive period for me). Being a non smoker and non drinker has kept me away from those two bear traps but I nevertheless find myself toying with self improvement exercises.
This year I have a couple of ideas: one is to read more, by which I mean worthwhile material, not just the range of papers we stock in the shop. Next to my laptop is an already dog eared copy of “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth, it’s a mere 1473 pages long and so rivals “War and Peace” in length. I am pleased to say I am making steady progress and have now read a grand total of 188 pages so just a measly 1285 to go… So who knows at this rate I’ll still be reading it come Christmas 2011 and I can state that I haven’t failed in my New Year Resolution! Though in all seriousness, if any of you out there have any suggestions for great literature that I should read send me an email or pop by the shop and let me know your thoughts. So far “1984” has been the most recommended to me.
The other resolution I have set myself is a more fragile promise. It is to spend just a fraction more time looking after my personal grooming. Now I am no neanderthal – I shower at least once a day and dress reasonably well, but it’s the finer points that I through pure apathy let slip. The first is my beard – I am a proud beard wearer and do not plan at anytime to lose it, though I believe I have stated on this blog before that my reason behind growing a beard was due to a laziness about shaving (and a troublesome shaving rash).
What I have found over the last 18 months is that a beard like smooth cheeks requires care and attention or it goes feral. So I am making this public declaration that I will regularly trim my beard and prevent it from becoming a ginger(ish) bramble. In this mode of thought Rich has also suggested that I should get my haircut on a more regular basis. Please don’t read this as a sales pitch by me to all you readers to come in to the shop, it is purely an observation made by Rich to me that, again through a combination of disorganisation and laziness, I leave it too long between haircuts and so end up looking a little wild about the face and head.
So there you have it – my new year resolutions are to become a well read, well groomed better man – not too tall an ask is it? Oh and while I’m about it I plan to gain a rippling Adonis’ body, cut up the credit cards, save a small fortune, correspond more frequently with old school friends and rise every weekday morning at 5:30 and make myself a healthy fruit smoothy… When will I learn?!
Let me know at pallmallbarberslondon@gmail.com what your New Year resolutions are and how they are going.


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