On Haircuts

[danieldwilliam]

Haircuts.

I have had a hair cut. I go to what in the UK is a known a Turkish barber. Mine trades under the name of the Show Barber. He is located on Bread Street, about 30 yards from Lothian Road (Central Edinburgh, with Central Edinburgh rents.)

I recommend him, but then I spend less time looking at my haircut than you do, so I'll let you be the judge of whether he is to be recommended. He has a somewhat Jeevsian approach to my hair. He definately disapproves of some of haircut choices and does his best to foil my more eccentric follies.

A Turkish barber is usually run by Turks or at least people from the country of Turkey. Often Kurds I notice. Although the place I used to go to when I worked at the Parliament was run by some Algerians. Anyway it's a middle eastern thing. There are hot shaves, bits of massage, they set your ears on fire and apply pomade or some such a thing.

I don't make an appointment (one sits and reads the paper in the queue.) The Algerian Turkish Barber I used to go used to have lot of people who all knew each other hanging about bantering. I had no idea what was going on because half of the banter was in a language I don't speak and half the banter was about people I didn't know who had done something stupid and had done that in a language I don't speak. But I did quite enjoy it.

I usually have a hair cut and a shave (The Full Show). It takes about 20 minutes. Includes a haircut, hot shave, flaming ears, eyebrow trim, hair wash, some business with having your fingers pulled and your neck reset. Some sweet smelling ungent is applied. Costs £25. I consider this at the expensive end of a haircut.

I go every couple of months. It's quite a pleasant and pleasantly masculine experience and I look forward to it.

In the words of Nye Bevan or perhaps Bill Oddie, that's my haircut, tell me yours.

Comments

[andrewducker]

My last haircut was in 2014. It seems to have suited me quite well.

It was with a woman's hairdresser, as they felt capable of dealing with long curly hair, and charged me significantly more than that.

[danieldwilliam]

I'm intrigued that you haven't had a hair cut since 2014.

[andrewducker]

I like long hair.

(I'm not sure it's any more complicated than that. I actively find very short cut hair off-putting. And a bit scary when it's a matter of choice.)

[cmcmck]

There's even one in our little Shropshire town now- run by a couple of Turkish Cypriot guys.

My experience is a little more girly obviously, but you may have noticed that my hair is now 2' shorter after 20 years! That was a weight off my mind! :o)

[danieldwilliam]

There seems to be an explosion of them.

Turkish Cypriot is the other origin story for a "Turkish" barber.

As I said below, I think there is something going on with folk moving around the world and setting up as a barber.

[strange_complex]

Thanks for sharing this. I was wondering at the beginning of the post what a 'Turkish barber' actually was (a literal description or a method of barbering), having heard the phrase before but never learnt more, so the rest of the list was very satisfying to my curiosity! I am glad this little bit of personal pampering is readily available to men.

My own haircut experience is more along the lines of handing a pair of sharp scissors over to either my sister or my friend Siobhan every couple of years, and saying DON'T CUT OFF MORE THAN AN INCH!

[danieldwilliam]

It's a relatively recent bit of pampering. Back when I was a student or a trainee there were two options for a gents haircut. You got your haircut quickly and silently for a fiver by a bloke in one of those overalls or you paid a tenner and a lady would cut your hair and ask you about your holidays in what was called a salon.

The idea that you should actually enjoy the process of being made to look good seems to be a bit of breakthrough technology.

The heritage of the actual barbers involved in a Turkish barber is of great interest to me. I have a feeling there is a demographic movement going on here under the radar.

[alithea]

I hand Kev the scissors and his instructions ;)

[danieldwilliam]

How does Kev feel about that?

[alithea]

Resigned mostly ;)

But happier than he was now I'm wearing it properly short and he can layer it much more easily.

[mountainkiss]

Suspect I’ll be an outlier here. My hair is cut and permed by Neha and coloured by Brooke (streaked with caramel blonde, modelled on Holly Hunter) at Four London on Conduit Street. I probably pay about £200 per month, albeit with a high standard deviation.

[danieldwilliam]

That does seem a lot.

Unless I've missed a decimal point somewhere you might well be spending as much in a year on your hair as I've ever spent on mine.

Your hair does look good thougth. Much better than mine.

[white_hart]

And here was me feeling wantonly extravagant at £50 every seven weeks!

[mountainkiss]

Hope you feel better now! Your hair is looking great.

[miss_s_b]

After having my head shaved for MacMillan I have become very attached to the clippers...

[danieldwilliam]

I have a set of clippers that I bought when I thought I might be able to trim my own hair but I've never gotten it to work.

And I live in fear of the comments of my barber if I ever tried it and it went wrong. I'd have to go to a burner barber in Leith or Granton before I went to Mr Show.

[miss_s_b]

LMAO

[alithea]

Lol!

Probably easier to get YLW to do it for you, I've done Kev's a few times. OTOH, your barbers visit sounds rather pleasant.

[danieldwilliam]

She is horrified at the prospect and perhaps rightly so. After all she would have to stand next to me after she's trimmed it if it went wrong.

[white_hart]

I go to a unisex salon, but definitely a Proper Hairdressers. I've had the same hairdresser for about 15 years now (with two periods of her maternity leave), I have a wash, cut and blow dry; I always decline tea or coffee but accept my hairdresser putting 'product' in my hair even though I hate how it feels and quite often come home and wash it straight out. I go every seven weeks and always make the next appointment when I'm paying (as I said in response to F, £50 a pop). In fact, I have an appointment tomorrow morning at 9:45.

If my current hairdresser ever leaves I might see if I can find a unisex barber's instead.

[white_hart]

And today I have discovered that my hairdresser *is* leaving, so I am re-evaluating my options!

[danieldwilliam]

Yes, I saw that and thought on the irony of the timing.

[danieldwilliam]

That said, my ten year old son goes to the same hairdresser as MLW.

It was the only way we could persuade him to go back for a haircut after the local trendy but not very good barbers gave him an unpleasant and bad haircut.

He now combs his hair everytime he goes to the loo. He's like the Fonz.

[danieldwilliam]

I also do not much care for having "product" put in to my hair.

It was considered very cool when I was a lad in Australia and I just could not get the hang of it. I've always found it mysterious and mysteriously unpleasant. Not the actual stuff in my hair but the rigamarole that goes with it.

I genuinely do not know if such a thing as a unisex barber exists. I've seen unisex hairdressers advertised but I've alway thought that they weren't really. Perhaps I have been wrong these many years. People are funny about these thing. Which surprises the economist in me. I think you and I have not dissimilar hair styles i.e. shortish and tidy. If you are prepared to pay £50 for a haircut that I would pay £25 for (and I'm getting a hot shave there too) then there's money on the table for a barber who is prepared to cut your hair.

[white_hart]

There are certainly barbers who, while not unisex, are prepared to cut women's hair (and there are lots who aren't). I had been thiking about this because a colleague mentioned that her NB teen had been to a local barber's, so I think I will probably try that one.