Saturday, April 07, 2007

closest shave


i had an idea after being here a couple days in istanbul...get a haircut and a shave. let's face it and i don't mean to be crass, but the men here all have moustaches and seem, er - hairy. well, enough of my observations and onto my finding a barber - which was easy, they are everywhere! well, seeing one on an alley like corridor was highly alluring combined with the place had two chairs and both barbers seemed to be on their way to seventy. oh yeah, the place was completely blue on the inside. i cannot attach a photo which i will do later but i did proceed with the haircut and shave plus more. the haircut, simple stuff since i do not have a lot of hair...i got my head washed after with some very hot water. i jumped when it was poured on me but not nearly as much as when i was getting lathered up for the shave. you see, the man next to me getting a shave made a slight but noticible jump as he got nicked...holy crap. i can see the blood through the white foam on his face but that was that. my face is completely lathered and out comes the blade. by the way, no english has been spoken except my saying thank you. the shave proceeds and my barber suddenly changes his tone and starts what sounds slightly arguementative with the other barber. holy crap pt. II! this was not the most unusal thing so i just relaxed and just thought, this is fun. slowly and steady, i proceeded to get a clean, nearly flawless shave. yes, i got some blood spilled but after the blade was put away, i got a face rub with what smelled like and FELT like lemon juice or something like it. if you are thinking, that must sting, well it did like a bee sting as it slowly went away. phew. then my barber - the other at this point is drinking beer - give my head a major rub down, powders my face and then proceeds to massage my temples, ears and the top of my head. i am on about 40 minutes at this point where he cleans up the white powder *huh* and hits me on the back as he removes my towel from my back. i left and got some fresh squeezed pomegranate juice to relax with. my total for this barber experience...15 turkish lira = 11 dollars.

pix coming soon after i get home soon but this was the istanbul experience i think i will look back at and just marvel that was not historical.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love the FreakSauce, but please change the format back; the green is too hard to read.

Safe travels-yoga when you get back!