Kusadashi, Turkey

We walked through the Turkish bazaar today – what a true delight. I am NOT in California anymore. The Turkish people are very friendly – some offer you tea when you come into their shops - but after making a good bargain (getting the price you want for something) it is polite to give the seller a little gift. We brought a lot of little chocolates and bags of tea with us. After we made purchases, we always gave a sweet treat and some tea – we made many friends this way. I bought a woven purse, a small inexpensive necklace, a blouse and a CD of Turkish music. We have been away for about a month now and Dave’s hair was getting a little shaggy – we passed a barber shop – should he? Would you? Well – he did. The cost for a haircut in Turkey is 6 euro – and here is the story of David’s Turkish haircut.
The barber was a young fella in his mid 20’s and did not speak any English. Dave managed to explain what he wanted done – but got way more than he bargained for. The basic cut was done with scissors, a snip snip to the hair that was lifted with a comb, then a snip snip in the air to clear the hair from the scissors – he had a beat of rhythm with each snip of the scissors. After the hair was cut he got the buzzers and coiffed the edges of Dave’s hair, around the back, the sideburns and over the ears. Very neat and very tidy. Then the barber dipped some 12” piece of wire with a little rubber on the end into a liquid purple solution and lit a match and flamed on the end – then very quickly he ran it over Dave’s ears and upper cheeks to “burn” away the man hairs! Has anyone ever had this done? I really must know. After singeing off the man hairs, he put his hand on Dave’s forehead tilted his head back and snipped away at the nose hairs. There was a whisking off with a big brush - then he was leaned forward into the sink and his hair was washed with coconut shampoo – a quick towel dry inclusive with a little cotton into each ear to make sure they were dry and then a blow dry, complete with some gel. I am not kidding when I say this was probably the best haircut Dave has ever got – it wasn’t just the haircut, it was the burning of the ear and face hair and the nose hair trim – it was awesome. We paid the price, plus a tip and of course chocolate and two boxes of orange tea.