I immediately thought of my own father, who died before I stopped getting my hair cut and started getting it "styled." 

I used to go to Grover's Barber Shop. Now, I have followed other modern men, and I get my hair shampooed, conditioned and styled at a place called Blowout. 

Melissa does my hair. Quite often there are ladies on each side of me having their hair done, too. That's all the place needs to be a bona fide beauty parlor. 

I had become fairly comfortable in that setting, but after what the man said about his father, I somehow felt I had betrayed my own. 

My father was a military man. He was wearing a crew cut the day I was born, and he was wearing a crew cut the day he died. 

I have to temper this story a bit for a family newspaper, but a man who served in the Army with my father told this: He would be shocked 

"We had some new recruits in around '54, and the captain (my father) had them standing at attention. 

"He went down the row asking each recruit where he was from, and he came to a kid with what was considered long hair back then. 

"The captain said, `Soldier, how long has your hair been in that condition?' 

"The kid replied, `Since I started high school, sir.' 

"The captain said, `I want you to report to the post physician right away. Do you understand?' 

"The kid said, `Yes, sir, but what do I do when I get there?' 

"The captain replied, `Ask him to give you a complete physical to verify whether or not you're in the wrong outfit and need to be transferred to the WACs."' 

My hair is not that long by today's standards, but if Daddy could see me now, I am certain he would be shocked. But I don't use spray 

I can hear him now. "In the name of God, son, Liberace doesn't have that much hair." 

My father considered Liberace the epitome of the lowest form of male life. 

There are a number of things I do today that would shock my father were he still alive. 

Besides the hair on my head, I have a mustache and a beard. 

"Only movie stars and homosexuals have beards," he likely would say, "and I haven't seen any of your movies lately." 

I play golf. He abhorred golf. 

"Silly game," he'd say. "Hit the ball, and then go find it." 

I don't wear socks very often. After my father left the Army, he became a teacher. I saw him send two 10th-graders home during a basketball game, telling them not to return until they were wearing "the proper footwear." 

And I get my hair cut in a beauty parlor. If you're listening, Daddy, forgive me. And, consider this: At least I don't use hair spray.