They talk a lot about consent in academia. Ever since I returned it’s never far from being addressed. It’s nice, considerate, but like a lot of my experiences there, it doesn’t feel like the real world, feels like the world in a bubble. Like that time I attended Evan Parker playing Clinton’s Tavern and one by one people walked out because they couldn’t take it. He seemed indifferent, if he was insulted he kept it to himself. I was blown away. There is a little hair salon I walked into last winter. A sign for men’s haircuts cheap did it. Inside, the woman was nice and efficient, we talked about Trinidad, where she grew up. The owner was not there, she explained to me their business moved here in recent months from their original location at the Galleria Mall which closed for crazy construction. I liked the haircut and went back three months ago. This time the owner was there. She was pretty good but her English wasn’t spoken fluently, we didn’t have many things understandable between us. I was impressed with the various techniques she demonstrated cutting my hair, a real pro and scientist it seemed to me. I went back a few days ago, again the owner was working but this time as I sat back for the short haircut I requested, she asked “you want me to wax ears? I’ll do for you.” I thought what have I got to lose? I do have hair growing out of my ears, I don’t care about it but at the same time I do shave the hair on my ears. I know women wax their legs and bolder parts. “Ok” I said, and after the haircut was mostly done she dipped a popsicle stick into a container of hot brown wax, then smeared it against my ears. I understood what was happening and I thought this might be a very interesting experience. Then she dipped another popsicle stick into wax and like a ballerina made a swift movement ending in sticking it up my nose. Before I knew it, it was there and I realized in the barber chair she plans to remove my nose hair as well. I wondered whether or not I would have agreed to this experiment if asked in advance. I couldn’t really stop her from doing the next nostril now, wouldn’t want things uneven. Soon she yanked the wax from my ears and then as if she was in the plumber olympics yanked out one nostril’s wax, then the next. She wanted to impress me sticking the wax and hair up close to my eyeballs to admire. This was something I never experienced before. The consent issue didn’t bother me but if she wondered whether I was thinking along those lines she solved everything at the end, “your wife will like this.”