Barber Shop

Last night Michael and I went with one of our Arab friends to the barber shop. Michael wanted a hair cut, and I wanted to get my beard trimmed Arab style, so our friend took us to the barber that he goes to every week. Michael went first and decided he was going to go for the buzz cut, but as soon as the barber had made it a third of the way through, Michael realized he had requested it way to short.


The real adventure though comes in the care of the facial hair. This was the first time for me to get a shave from a barber with a straight blade, so that in itself was an adventure. I ended up with some Arab style sideburns and a short beard with some great lines. The only thing is my hair is too light to really pull it off right.


All this sounds normal, but the last step is the kicker. After shaving, there is always that little bit of peach fuzz on the top part of the cheek just below the eyes. I never bother to mess with it because it is not noticeable and it is very close to the eyes. But here they have a special way of removing that hair for nice, smooth cheeks all around. My friend who has lived here a while calls it the "black thread of death." What they do is they take a piece of string a make a triangle between their mouth and two fingers. Between the fingers it is a double string. He then basically rolls that part over the cheek bringing the two strings together and pulling back with mouth and fingers to pluck out the small pesky hairs. Needless to say, it can be a very painful experience. Because of this, when my Arab friend first told the barber to do it on me, he said "No, I think it will be too painful for him." But we convinced him in the end so that Michael and I could get the cultural experience. Of course it hurt, but it was not that bad. My Arab friend even said that he thinks I am strong because I did not flinch.


Now there is no way that words can adequately capture the process of the thread, so here are some pictures to help you get a better idea: