Dispatch from the Razor's Edge, the Blog of Michael Stephen Fuchs
2002.07.06 : Here Here, Herr Hair – Nice Hair!
"Life's funny like that."
"A laugh a minute."
        - Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

    In the Whole Foods produce section, I happened to see a strapping guy with a smoking brush cut. Intrepidly approaching him, I asked,
"Pardon me, but – may I ask where you got that haircut?"
"In South Africa."
"You've got to be kidding me."
"I can give you the address of the place in Cape Town."
"I want the haircut before I go."
    Walking back from Whole Foods, I saw a hummingbird at work – four feet in front of my face. Man, those guys have got some swivel-action pivot control; they're like the gyroscopes of the animal kingdom. In the parking lot, I ran into my neighbor – who also had a smokin', summertime brush cut. He directed me to a place on California Avenue.
"Does he use clippers, or scissors?"
"He uses everything. The guy's meticulous. It's a committment. You'll be there a while."
"Perfect. This is my first proper haircut in five years. I need to be in the hands of a professional."
    There's also, incidentally, it turns out – as I discovered in my web searches for pictures of the perfect haircut – this whole community/cult of haircut fetishists online. Many are gay – or closeted, judging by their fascination with Marine Recon, Army Ranger, etc. haircuts. Also an unhealthly level of interest in professional soccer players. Moreover, these guys are fixated, variously, on flat-tops, high-and-tights, induction cuts, fades, Ivy Leagues, etc. Check it out. Seriously. I guess it really does take all kinds to make the Internet go round . . .
  my exodus     hair  
about
close photo of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very  long  walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

THE MANUSCRIPT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
PANDORA'S SISTERS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, AND OTHER STORIES by Michael Stephen Fuchs
D-BOYS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
COUNTER-ASSAULT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book One - Fortress Britain, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Genesis, by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Three - Three Parts Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Four - Maximum Violence, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Five - EXODUS, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Six - The Horizon, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Seven - Death of Empires, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eight - Empire of the Dead by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : NEMESIS by Michael Stephen Fuchs

ARISEN, Book Nine - Cataclysm by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Ten - The Flood by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Twelve - Carnage by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Thirteen - The Siege by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Fourteen - Endgame by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Fickisms
ARISEN : Odyssey
ARISEN : Last Stand
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 1 - The Collapse
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 2 - Tribes
Black Squadron
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 3 - Dead Men Walking
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 4 - Duty
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 5 - The Last Raid
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