Turkish Haircut
Mary and I spent the summer crossing Europe from west to east in a sailboat. The trip took us through the rivers and canals of France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania before leading us to the Black Sea. Details of the trip (written for boaters) can be found on my Red Sky website.
After reaching the Black Sea we sailed along the coast through Romania and Bulgaria then through the Bosphorus to Istanbul, Turkey. The first three days in Istanbul were spent going through the byzantine process of clearing in. After that we had a couple of days to play tourist and just explore.
One day, while wandering the market streets on the Asian side of the city I spotted a barber shop. I have begun a tradition of never having two consecutive haircuts in the same country.
A market street in Istanbul
I had not had a haircut since Germany. I also had not had a shower since Bulgaria – so I was neither looking nor smelling my best.
It was a small shop with two chairs and no customers. The barber was standing outside and he quickly followed me in. I indicated I wanted a haircut (in case it wasn’t obvious) and he pointed to one of the chairs which were not unlike the barber chairs of my youth in Chicago. Mary followed us and was soon joined by a rather distinguished looking elderly gentleman.
Mary and the gentleman talked while the barber estimated the magnitude of the job before him. The elderly man was a retired mining engineer who, unlike the barber, spoke English as well as his native Turkish. The barber took advantage of the waiting interpreter to inquire how much hair I wanted to keep. I responded just a couple of inches, he could have the rest.
While Mary and the interpreter talked, the barber went to work. It began like a normal haircut. He took some scissors and began chopping away at the hair on top then began working the sides and back. Next came the electric clippers and the tapering around the edges.
As the barber moved on to my beard, his assistant came in. I had never seen a barber’s assistant before. He was a young man, perhaps 18 or 20 years old. As the barber hacked at my beard, his assistant took a straight razor and shaved the back of my neck. Nothing unusual there. Then he came around front and trimmed my eye brows. A nice touch to remind me I am getting old and wild looking but it has happened before. While he was there, he went on to trim my nasal hair – I’ve never had that happen before. I must remember to check how long it gets from time to time,
The barber was still finding hair to trim on my head and face. He stood on one side of me and his assistant stood on the other side – and began to shave my ears. I didn’t know I had hair on my ears. Having completed that he found another implement and trimmed the hair in my ears.
Just as I was wondering what else they would find to trim, the barber began running water in the sink. “Ah, a shampoo”, I thought. I could use having my hair washed. They moved me over and deposited my head in the sink – face down. Fortunately they left the plug out so I didn’t drown. The assistant then proceeded to shampoo my entire head, including my face. Yes, he did get behind my ears. I could hear Mary giggling in the background.
Finally, I was pulled out of the sink and dried. My hair was combed and we went through the usual look-in-mirror-and-nod-approval ritual. The charge for having my head remodeled? Twenty-five Turkish lira or about $15 US. Mary found it a good value just for the entertainment.