Haircut One Hundred – "Love Plus One" (1982)

Where does it go from here?

Is it down to the lake, I fear?

The Haar Zone in Bruges, Belgium is a kapsalon – a hair salon.  It’s also a place to rent bicycles.  

Here’s a recent online review of the Haar Zone:

My wife and I wanted to ride bikes [in Bruges] . . . . We found a bike rental store located below a tony hair salon north of [the Market Square in Bruges] and obtained our bikes that afternoon to have them ready to go early the next morning.  Discovering that the bike shop was owned by the people who ran the hair salon, and in need of a haircut, I subjected myself to top quality attention from two staffers and got a shampoo from a lovely attendant, a professional scissors cut and two bikes for 70 Euros.

I wasn’t in need of a haircut when I was in Bruges.  Plus I’ve had my hair cut by the same woman for well over 30 years, and wouldn’t dream of letting some random Brugeois schoonheidsspecialist get anywhere near my head with a pair of scissors.  

While getting a shampoo from a “lovely attendant” was tempting, I stuck to renting a bike.

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My destination was Damme, a charming little town of about 11,000 souls that’s an easy six- or seven- kilometer ride from Bruges. 

To get there, you ride northeast through Bruges until you hit a bike path that parallels the Damme Canal, which was one of a number of canals built by Napoleon over 200 years ago.  

If you’re not a biker, you can get from Bruges to Damme on the Lamme Goedzak, a 170-passenger boat that was built to resemble a Mississippi River sternwheeler:

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Damme’s handsome Stadhuis (town hall) was built in 1464:

If you look closely at that photo, you will see there are five flags flying in front of the Stadhuis.  

First, you have the flag of the city of Damme:

There is also the flag of West Flanders – the Belgian province in which Damme is located:

Next is the flag of Flanders – the Dutch-speaking northern region of Belgian, which consists of five provinces (including West Flanders):

Of course, there is the Belgian national flag:

Finally, there is the flag of the European Union (or “EU”), which consists of 28 European nations:

There are several restaurants across the street from the Stadhuis, including one that is obviously proud of its frites:

Just outside of Damme stands the handsome Schellemolen windmill, which was built in 1867:

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Haircut One Hundred was a British new wave group.  

Three of the singles from the band’s debut album, Pelican West, were top-ten hits in the UK, and the album reached #2 on the UK albums chart in 1982.  

But frontman and songwriter Nick Heyward left the band shortly thereafter to pursue a solo career, and the group’s follow-up album flopped.  Hasta la vista, Haircut One Hundred!  

I have a vague memory of buying Pelican West.  I can’t imagine why.

Click here to listen to “Love Plus One.”

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: