Chapter 1

What & Why!?

Over the months, I have learned that what works in your hair and what doesn't. Now I usually put my hawk in liberty spikes. So, liberty spikes are easier for me but I have feathered it a few times and it is a tad bit harder to put up. Jared from the AZ local band Dishevel use to have a mohawk that was like 2 feet tall & blue and he always had it feathered, so it came easier to him. It all depends on what you start out doing with it. 

Another thing that many kids are doing nowadays is checkers on the sides of their hawk. I have never done this but I think it is very cool and the first time I saw it I thought "HOLY CRAP THAT'S COOL!" but lately I have seen it at allot of shows (Rancid, Dropkick Murphy's, NOFX, Total Chaos, Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards...etc) I have a pair of checkered doc martins and this kid (ike) asked me "What's the deal with checkers is it some sort of rebellion thing like the anarchy sign? Because there is this kid at school that has checkers on his head and lately I have seen just about everywhere" well, it is far from a form of rebellion. If you listen to ska then you most likely know it means 2-tone. "United strong blacks and whites, united strong punks and skins"-Agnostic front. 2-tone is black and white checkers, but at the same time, they have a kind of different meaning and that is peace, love & unity. Groups such as The Specials, The Selector, and The Toasters can explain it better than I.

Here is a list of things that work when spiking your hair:

Elmer's school gel Glue! (This is what I use the most because it only costs $1 and when it dries it makes your spikes really tiff)

Toothpaste! (I herd that this is what David bowie used so one day when I was out of glue I used toothpaste. Too me it works better than glue. But it attracts flies and bees and for the first Hour, you have it in your hair it smells like mint)

Shaving Cream! (This only works for HUGE Spikes and it DOES NOT work for feathering hair. But if you do use it for feathering it will hold for about 10 minutes then you must put something else in. If you sweat when you use it. The shaving cream turns into cream again and makes your sides foamy. Kind of a cool feeling.)

Egg whites! (Some people are confused on the egg white thing "what is the egg whites?" well you crack open an egg and dig the yellow part out with a spoon and throw it in the trash. the take the left over WHITE! stuff and put it in a bowl, stir it up and put in your hair. Egg whites take a while to dry so you should use a blow dryer. So I don't usually use egg whites unless I have someone helping me cause it's like a four hand job)

Deodorant Gel! (Smells nice and takes a long time to dry. I have only used it once and it took forever so I wouldn't really use it if I were you. Actually if you want to experiment more with it go ahead)

Five Strength hair gel! (Comes out of your hair REALLY fast if you sweat allot but if you use your hawk for looks only. Go ahead)

Bed Head! (Works pretty well but you have to use ALLOT! but it is probably the best thing for your hair)

Hair spray! (Doesn't work at all. Unless you have a little 1-3inch Mohawk. also it's bad for the environment. I Only use it for the tops of my spikes so I can make them pointier.)

Here is a small list of things you SHOULD NOT USE!

Rubber Cement! (Man, I used this once and it felt like it was burning a hole through my head. Right before I put it in I had dyed my hair Green with coo laid and then I put it in and it took 5 WASHES to get it all the way out! and each time I had to bring a comb with me! AHHHHH!!!! hurt like a mofo)

Super Glue! (Don't use it cause it doesn't come out! My friend used it once and he had to shave his head!)

Chap Stick! (Just makes your hair heavy doesn't help AT ALL)

Some of these things might work for you! but they definitely did not work for me!

BUT! What I would recommend for you (the reader) is experiment with your own house appliances; because I hate talking to people and have them be like "yeah that glue works really good thanks for telling me about it" and I hate seeing those "bastards" with there brand name clothing and what not using glue in there hair! Really I don't understand why I hate it but I do and it bugs me. So BE ORIGINAL! And start something! Believe me it WILL catch on if you stick with it!

When you have a mohawk or some other sort of "strange" or "unusual" style of hair you get allot of comments on it. Some can be mean, strange, nice, friendly, or just plain ugly.

My friends and I go to a local shopping center quite often called the pavilions. We all live in a boring town called Scottsdale it is in the phoenix area of Arizona. There isn't much to do here except go to this shopping center or hang out at someone's house. Well this one night we went over to McDonald's to get some ice cream (nothing else is good there) I had my mohawk up and I was wearing my black jacket that has nothing but Aquabats patches sewn into it. I cut out the front of my old Aquabats t-shirt that has a picture of a man standing front of a mirror wearing an aquabats shirt and at the bottom it reads "look at me I'm a winner." Anyways my friends and I sit down and eat our delicious ice cream cones and these guys (or "jocks" as some people would call them) all wearing brand name clothes such as...independent, Fubu and Abercrombie and Fitch; came in and one of them pointed at my hair and started laughing and pointing at me. Then he saw my shirt and said "hahahahaha look at me I'm a winner hahahaha yeah right! hahaha!" I just ignored him and ate my cone but then he brought his friends and then they all started laughing and pointing at my expense. I really didn't care but my friends stood up for me and started laughing at them like they were they stupid ones not us. I guess that pissed them off because later when we were walking to a pay phone they drove by in there car and threw sodas at us, but they all missed. (haha) One of my best friends Lena retaliated by throwing there cups back at them and saying "YOU THINK YOUR SO COOL PICKING ON KIDS TWICE YOUR AGE HAHA COME BACK AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN YOU ASSHOLES!" which I think I thanked her for because that takes some balls to do; and if I haven't, I have now through this book.

Tom is a friend of mine that lives in Flagstaff, AZ. He rarely comes to visit but this one time he came for some reason he wanted to go to the Fashion Square mall. I personally HATE that mall wish it would burn and go to hell and take everything with it, I hate it so much. but since he never comes down I decided I would make an exception. We walked there from his friend Curtis's house which is like 1 or 2 miles. it only took us 15-30 minutes to see everything we wanted to see, so we rode the elevator for about 2 hours. while we were in there we got ALLOT of interesting comments and reactions. one lady asked if I was in a gang, and I said "hahahaha no mam I am far from it" so she felt more comfortable I could tell. But seriously I look FAR, FAR! FROM a "gang" member I mean I was wearing a shirt and tie! but having a mohawk has that effect on some people; it makes them feel intimidated and uncomfortable, which is a small reason for why I have mine but to confuse me with a gang member. I don't understand.

Often though you will get some nice complements. My favorite one I have gotten so far though is from my friend Andy (aka Chicken bat) he has a mohawk as well and his band the Wiggums were working on a music video, they were looking for extras and on there guest book/message board I said "I think I should be an extra, because ever video needs someone with a moehawk. hahaha" Then my friend Andy e-mailed me saying "yeah that would be awesome to have you in our music video. But your hawk is so much cooler than mine" or something like that. Another nice experience is when I went to the Utah Warped Tour 2001. it was as if nobody has seen a mohawk bigger than 2 inches before, everyone was asking me questions about it and being totally friendly and nice. it was a great experience. I love Utah.

The ugly comments I usually get from family. I don't understand why? but sometimes they will be nice and then the next BAM! there mean and practically hateful towards me. take my mother for example... One day when I put my hawk up for school and she said to me "Ryan I really like your creativeness and I really think your talented and I'm glad you are that way, your mohawk really defines who you are" which is a HUGE shock to me because she never complements me on stuff I actually care about. then a few weeks later I am putting it up and she says "RYAN YOU CANT GO OUTSIDE LOOKING LIKE THAT YOU LOOK SO SCARY AND PEOPLE WILL DISLIKE YOU...blah blah blah...your stupid...bla blah blah" (she went on for about 10 minutes) so I asked her later why she was so nice to me before and she never gave me a direct answer I think she might have read it in a parenting magazine. The magazine probably said "if your child is doing something crazy, outrageous or rebellious it is because they are trying to show you they are different and the best way to stop them from doing this is to act like you enjoy what they do....bla blah blah" but once she realized I'm not going to change no matter what she says, she probably said screw it I'm going to be an asshole and tell my kid that he looks stupid and lower his self-esteem if I want to. my brother Stuart is the same way. although he still has never seen my hawk I talked to him on the phone and talked to him about it and he chewed me out just like my mom did! it could just be my family but if you are going to get a mohawk don't be surprised if your family suddenly acts like they hate you.