Austinist Giveaway: Birds Barbershop Getting Your Hair Did, Cancer Ass-Kicking Fund

I know who pappy is. Happy to fill you in. See you soon.

Still no girlfriend, eh pappy? Surely some lucky girl wants to go on that $150 Cozumel trip with you! Hahahahahahahhahaha!

Here's the deal Brenda, you are old Austin and everything good about it. You've supported the Austin music community with your service and love and who knows...maybe to the detriment of your health (I can't imagine that all the second-hand smoke you've been forced to inhale while working in clubs was good for you).

Unfortunately, there is a small group of mentally-incapacitated individuals who've decided to hijack the individualistic spirit of Austin and turn it into an embarrassment - ie "Keep It Weird" and everything-Austin-post-1978-is-bad. I mean look around, $150 for a color job is on the low end of the scale - hats off to Birds for giving Austin a reasonable priced-place to get their hair done. Guess what folks, you can't find a 3 bedroom house ANYWHERE for $150 a month and no restaurant can provide their employees insurance while serving you a $2.50 breakfast. Grow the f*ck up!

As for you Brenda, I have never met a more spunky, independent, gracious, fun, and loving person. The reason the music (and music-loving) community of Austin has rallied around you with charity benefits is because you have continued to work 20 hours a week all through this ordeal with a smile on your lovely face. They do it because they love you and your amazing spirit. Most people wouldn't know what you've been through if it weren't for an occasional hat on your head.

While I get that blogging is the easiest solution for passive-aggressive individuals who never got the love they wanted from mommy to unload on the rest of the world, this is low even for you ol'papsmear. I can't help but wonder how long it would take for your body to be found if you died alone. Don't let that be your fate, it's never too late to learn to give and show love to others around you.

I think:

- employers should be responsible for their employee's insurance and EVERYONE who holds a full time job or has retired from a full time job or cannot work because of disability should be given good insurance.

- people shouldn't treat people with cancer like they aren't there or they're already dead or with pity (as you OBVIOUSLY want to be treated).

- people shouldn't be "erased" because you don't like their sentiments. If you don't like what I have to say, don't say a word to me. Like busybee. If she wasn't such an ugly bitch I wouldn't have been such an ugly bitch back. That goes for people, books, music, movies, video games, art... pretty much anything that you can not like.

- $150 for hair coloring is an obscene amount of money to charge to anyone. You won't change it with your cancer or your guilt or your piiiiiiiiiiity meeeeeeeeeeeee attitude.

Thanks Craig, for the compliment!

I don't know who you are ol'pappy, but it breaks my heart that you chose this post as your forum to be mean. I wish the Austinist would erase your posts here. But maybe it is better that a light is shined on ignorant folks like you.

My bosses at Birds did an overwhelming and incredibly generous thing by raising funds for me. I have my own insurance, but being in treatment for the rest of my life means that I can't work full-time. Which in turn means that it's tough sometimes to make ends meet. Being a stylist is a wonderful career. ESPECIALLY AT BIRDS. For you to say that a service such as cutting or coloring hair should "be free" is very perplexing to me. Would you agree that whatever you do for a living should also be free? I think not. At Birds, the service we provide is the finest quality, but a lot less expensive than any of the other salons in town. And you even slight our poster, which has a picture of one of the most beautiful women in the world on it, touting a summer special that is named in honor of her band and a tribute to her iconic style.

I am "that woman that got cancer". Your cynical mischief-making in this arena is ugly and not amusing. Your sardonic posts have become tedious, insipid, and vapid. Your negative input on this thread makes me angry.

My cancer is not caused by hair chemicals. Stylists take precautions when using chemicals as does anyone who works with chemicals. For your information, many cancers are genetic, meaning that it runs in the family. Yes, there are genetic tests to determine that, and I have had those tests. Sadly, it makes my cancer the in-curable type, but we do have ways to manage it for a very long time.

In your warped brain, and given the genetic component, who exactly should be responsible for my insurance since this has been passed down through my family? Obviously not my bosses at Birds...

And as for your insinuation that you need "to talk simple and down to" those who went to beauty school, perhaps you would like to see the college diploma on my wall before you cast such aspersions.

I hope some of your friends will read this and kick you in the shins. The fight that you tried to pick on this thread with one of my co-workers and the insults you tried to lob at my employer are highly inappropriate.

Perhaps someone who knows who you are will stop into Birds and tell me how to find you in person so I can educate you a little bit about cancer, compassion and good manners.

Gee, busybee, I had no idea anyone was so interested in my life. Why are you wasting your well researched and massive writing talent here? You should be sharing that grace with the world via the lady's stall at Hole In The Wall where talent like yours truly belongs.

HEY! Maybe you can charge people $150 a piece to tell stories! Everyone will think you're so original and creative and smart finding such an inventive way to rip them off (rich people LOVE to get ripped off from what I hear - do you find that true?)! You don't even have to feel guilty about stealing your massively original and creative and smart idea from me - I'll let you have it for free because I would never charge for something as insignificant as a story or an idea or a haircut or some ugly streaks in a woman's head.

And hey! While my mind is wondering... SURELY the proprietors of Birds "Barber Shop" (not really, it just sounds cute) knew that their workers being around hair dye all the freaking time would more than likely give their "beauticians" (quotation marks because they look cute) CANCER since that's like well known and stuff - you'd think they would like - require masks for their workers and pay for their health insurance and provide workers comp insurance since it's very likely that those chemicals are gonna make some tumors in someone. So why DID they have a fund raiser in the first place? Shouldn't they be liable for that woman's treatment?

Hmmmmmmm.......

Sorry to talk so simple and down to you but I know you went to beauty school so.....

Sad to see you get drawn into a pissing match with OLDpappy, Donna. You see, he lives in a 1962 school bus parked behind a shack on old Rainey Street. He burps and farts and has really greasy hair. He doesn't like anything. His favorite sport is taking the piss out of things that everyone else DOES like. He's the kind of guy who wears socks with his too short shorts and Birkenstocks and shows up religiously at city council meetings because he thinks he has something important to piss about. The reason they have to close Barton Springs pool a couple of times a year is because that's where he bathes and he pollutes it with his grime. He's a regular here on Austinist. He knows not that Birds is the most wonderful place in town to get a really great hair style for an incredibly affordable price, as opposed to all the other salons where you pay 2 or 3 times the price. But, his hair has fleas and poo in it, so of course he wouldn't know anything about that. He still believes what he reads in the Chronicle, for gosh sakes, and he smells like Keith Richards. He also steals tips from restaurant tables before the server has a chance to pick it up. Even though he doesn't actually eat at restaurants. He just goes there to steal the tip. He hasn't had a woman look his way since he slipped one a mickey at a Killer Bees show at Liberty Lunch in 1986, and she had to press charges after kicking his wussy ass. After he got out of jail, he sold flowers on the corner of Barton Springs and Lamar for a couple of years. The reason he's so angry about everything is because the woman he slipped the mickey to was really a man.

You know what really bothers me, Donna? The fact that you're going for (from the look of your flyer) this whole DIY, NYC punk aesthetic but you're charging folks $150 (not a lot to you obviously but a crapload of extra money to me) to get their hair cut so that they can look like a young, savage punk girl that cuts and dyes her own hair. To me - that's disgusting. It is culturally revolting - taking something meant to cost nothing and be done on the fly and putting highlights on it. Frosting and teasing it. Selling something that should be free and at the same time making something beautiful into something ugly.

I don't like you and I don't like Birds now. Not that I'd ever patronize your "barber shop" (said to make it look cute) but thanks for giving me the ammo to truly bad mouth it.

Well gee, Donna, thanks for doing your part to keep Austin overpriced and predictable.

Pappy. *sigh* I work at bird's and while it says "barbershop" on the outside, it doesn't mean that we are all old guys. in fact, most of us aren't even barbers, we are cosmetologists. Please, usually i find what you say here to be funny and truthful in some way, but don't talk about stuff you know nothing about. I, personally, think Cozumel would be a waste of money no matter what, just like you think highlights are a waste of money, so just remember, the world and it's opinions are not totally indicitive of what you think.

Food for two weeks is worth $150. Two moths worth of electricity is worth $150. A trip to Cozumel to go camping on the beach is worth $150. A feast for all the bums on 6th and Congress is worth $150. "Highlights" that a woman could get from sitting in the sun with some lemon juice on her head and that look unnatural even done by the most experienced professional is not, under any circumstance, or for any boost of the self-esteem worth $150.

Plus, I highly doubt that the people at whatever barber shop in Austin, TX are the best damn highlight giving people in the world.

I just think it's ridiculous that women will pay that much for streaks in the hair when their hair would probably look a hell of a lot better without unnatural highlights.

Ol' Pappy...because it takes hours to do this process. It also takes technique and knowledge in order to deliver the best looking highlights (in placement and correct colors for skintone/lifestyle/liking) and color, which in turn make the woman in question happy with herself and her appearance. You may think they are ugly, but if she thinks they are beautiful, it's worth the money.

I'm sorry that woman got cancer but why does it cost $150 to put some ugly streaks in a woman's head?

brenda's chopped my mop more than once, she's a great lady.