Straight Shave

I took a razor to Turkey, but no shaving cream. Darius and all his roommates use electric razors so there was no foam to steal and he suggested I simply not shave and we could go get a hot foam shave at a barber shop at the end of the week. Meredith wanted to go antique shopping so this provided us with a good excuse to avoid joining her in that activity.

The end of the week arrived and I looked like a (very handsome) rat with mange. Darius likes to make fun of thin "white-man beards" but mine is thinner than most. I am also cursed with having dark, relatively fast-growing facial hair which comes in in haphazard patches across my face and neck. When we got to the barber shop the barbers were all dressed in matching pink and white striped Tommy Hilfiger shirts, unbuttoned halfway to show their ample chest hair and a variety of chain jewelry. It was about 10 AM and they all had 5 o'clock shadow. Darius hadn't shaved in about 20 minutes, so he had a full beard. He asked for a shave and one for me. The barber looked at me, then back at Darius and said, "Just the beard?" (You should understand that this exchange was in Turkish so I didn't understand what he had said until Darius filled me in later.)

The barber who shaved my face did a fine job, in spite of distractions from the adjacent barber and his client. They provided a fairly constant stream of commentary while I was in the chair. I'm pretty sure it all had to do with the fact that I was paying for him to shave my "beard." My barber even had to quiet the other barber with a swift swat to the wrist from the back of his razor blade at one point.

This was my first experience with a hot foam shave and I have to say it felt great. It was the cleanest, closest shave I've ever had. The barbers in Turkey however are in the habit of applying 3 or 4 different after-shave and oil products after the shave. In my case this meant my barber spent about as much time washing the foam off and massaging oil and other products into my face as he had shaving my face.

When we met up with Meredith again she commented on how different Darius looked and how I looked exactly the same. Whatever. It only cost 2 lira and I felt better and smelled of Turkish oil and fragrances all day.