Just a quick programming note for you:  “Tabatha’s Salon Takeover” on BRAVO is finally airing the episode they shot in Boystown last summer.  Tabatha Coffey, the host, traveled here to makeover Chicago Male, a salon where some of us used to get our hair cut (until she remade it, oddly enough).  The shop’s right on Halsted, near the corner of Halsted and Roscoe, diagnal from Pie Hole (which has the pizza we love), and right across the street from the 7/11 we talk about sometimes (where all those horrible kids who hang out all day at the Center on Halsted go to start more trouble when the Center closes at night).

We got to meet Tabatha when she was in town filming.  A friend of ours lived in the building that houses Chicago Male, and we’d see her in the courtyard out back smoking all the time.  She is funny, smart, kind, and SO FRIENDLY.  We’ve been excited to see this episode because Tabatha is so great in person, even if we didn’t like what she did with the salon.

Previously, Chicago Male had a really comfy, cozy vibe to it:  they used reds, greens, and lots of leather and marble to make the place feel sort of like an upscale ski lodge.  We would get there early for appointments just so we could read magazines and hang out.  The staff there, however, was TERRIBLE:  rude, snotty, wispy little twinks at the reception desk and stylists so flamboyant and full of themselves even we rolled our eyes, as immune to this behavior as we usually are in Boystown.  They used to have a great biker chick lesbian named Renee working there, and that’s who used to cut our hair, but she had some health problems and moved back to Toledo, we think, so we stopped going there when she was gone.  As comfy as we thought it was in there, we just didn’t want to deal with the twinky staff and attitude in the place.

Well, Tabatha stripped all the warm colors and made the place look like a generic New York City salon:  cream walls, lots of black, going for sleek and high-end instead of comfy cozy.  A lot of people like it, but it’s not our cup of tea (or coffee, as it were, if we wanted to go for the easy Tabatha Coffey pun, which apparently we just did).

They’ve got a new receptionist too, but just walking past the shop every day, he doesn’t seem to be much of an improvement from the Miss Thang they had before.

Welcome to Boystown!

We’re excited to see the episode, and are going to a Watch Party at Halsted’s Grill on December 29th to see it premiere, where we think they’re going to have a drag queen impersonate Tabatha.

You can watch the show yourselves at home, if you get BRAVO, and have a little Boystown in your own homes as well, where you can dress up like Tabatha yourselves if you want to.