I wear a hat every damned day. But for some reason I’m particular about who cuts my hair. In Seattle I had the best of the best, Todd McKay. He’s cut my hair for years there as well as in Tacoma, and a few times in LA. When you move, you have to start over. Call the internet company. Fill out a change of address. Switch over the utilities. But finding the personal things is the hardest part of being in a new place. A good tailor. The best shoe repair. And a great barber. There is a lot of trial and error in establishing a fit for each of these in your life. But to find a barber who is into cars, weird obscure designer brands, photography, and your sports is exponentially more rare.

I ended up with Sam cutting my hair only by chance. I had been going to a barbershop in the center of Copenhagen for many years when I lived in town. They did a fine job, but the price did not match the product. I have a hard time “breaking up” with a barber, so it took me moving to Nørrebro for me to dump them and start swiping again. I walked into a shop on Elmegade and got a great cut from a South African guy. I was stoked and immediately booked for the next one. Come the day of the cut, I was told he was not in and was sat with Jordy, another South African. Jordy was great. I went back time after time to him and was always pleased. But again, on the day of a cut, I get a cancellation and get passed on to yet another Commonwealther: Sam, an Australian of about 2 meters in height, a self-proclaimed chocolate addict (who pronounces the word “mocha” as “mokkah”), blanketed in tattoos, and about as politely spoken as is possible for one to be.

I liked Jordy. I didn’t want to change. But here we go. This guy is probably going to make me look like a brunette Rod Stewart or leave me all carved up like in that Jerky Boys skit. Squeeze my eyes closed and don’t take a peek for 30 minutes. I don’t recall all of it, but I do know that Sam mentioned his E30 BMW M3 to me and I think that sparked my interest. After presenting some photos of the car on his phone, he had my full attention and I realized we had a bit in common. The subjects of bouldering, Julius_7, and photography also came up and I invited Sam to join me with some friends to go climb. My hair also looked exactly as it should which was a coincidental convenience.

It's been a while now and I’ve had many haircuts from Sam as well as many climbing sessions. I’ve hand carried a coveted perfume bottle from Tbilisi to Copenhagen for him. And we have even been pulled over doing about 200kph in his insane BMW shortly after capturing these photos for this project.

I find it so interesting how much you can have in common with so many people with whom you cross paths in your life. I have the theory that you can take any two people and sit them down for a coffee and you will find that their similarities far outweigh their differences. It’s so bizarre how we always see the differences in people and rarely our common thread. My barber is now my friend, and this is proof of it.