Practical Jokes in the Keys

Sorry I have neglected the blog. Not much going on, just fixing boats. So maybe a little funny story.

Several years ago I had the privilege of working with a young Canadian man. John John had just return to the US after searching for gold in the Peruvian jungles for five years. This was in 2002 after the market crash. JJ’s nest egg was cracked in the falling market so he had to go back to work.

JJ was a nice guy with a bit of an offbeat personality. He mentioned that he was a lot more laid back than he once was due to a variety of jungle medications that he had used in Peru. Jeff, a good friend of mine, and I enjoyed JJ’s tales of the jungle.

Jeff and I were having a cold one afternoon when JJ sat down and started talking. JJ was concerned about premature hair loss. While he was rambling on about losing his hair, Jeff and I just kept drinking. We kind of enjoyed the fact that JJ was taking over the conversation giving us a bit of a break.

Then JJ mentioned that a Peruvian Shaman he had met in the jungles told him there was a cure for baldness. Per the Shaman, if you take the urine of a child under 6 months of age and sprinkle it on your head, hair loss stops. The only bad thing JJ said was you have to keep doing it all the time.

I had been fishing that day and brought a nice Sea Trout for dinner. For some reason, I told JJ that there was something in Sea Trout slime that stopped hair loss. Jeff, not missing a thing, mentioned that he had heard that as well.

I went into great detail of how the fresh skins had to be placed on the hair over night. That the use of a shower cap to hold the skins in place was required. And while I wasn’t positive, washing your hair prior to application and not after was recommended.

Jeff agreed adding that combing the wet hair away from the balding area before application improved performance. It was the scalp after all that needed the treatment.

JJ was very thankful for our invaluable advice and inquired as were to obtain the fish skins. I mentioned that he was in luck, though a rare catch in the Keys, I had caught one that morning. I dug out the skins and JJ went off to his house.

Jeff and I sat there nursing a beer not saying anything. After ordering another round, Jeff asked if I thought JJ would do it. I said I was sure he would and we left it at that.

The next morning, JJ caught up to us and said that the fish skin treatments seemed to be working. I told JJ that it was a little early, but I did think there might be a little improvement. This went on for several days. Each day JJ was more convinced there was new hair.

After five days, JJ caught up to us and was beaming! He was positive we had discovered a new hair loss prevention formula. He speculated for hours over which ingredient in the fish slime might be the active one. He felt that there was a potential business there and that he may be able to obtain venture capital for the start-up investment. JJ wanted to isolate the active ingredient because after five days the skins were really starting to stink.

Another friend of ours happened upon the conversation. He looked at JJ and told him we were just playing a trick on him. As JJ defended his research on fish slim hair re-growth to our other friend, Jeff finally lost it and with beer blasting from nose started laughing.

It was over. JJ finally trashed the smelly fish skins his hopes dashed. Like I said, I rarely play practical jokes. That is probably a good thing. It was nice to know that at least one Peruvian Shaman has a humorous side too.