My New Haircut

I have been doing my best to learn a little Hindi so I can talk better with the guys that work for my department. I am picking some things up, but slowly. My English tong has a hard time making some of the sounds.

Anyway, I was telling the guys I need to get a haircut. At that point my options were going to get it buzzed off like the military guys, or growing the balls to go into the female hair salon and getting it cut by someone who has never cut male hair before. I was kind of on the fence when the Hindi guys said to me, “No go to PX for hair cut boss, we take you to good guy. Indian man, very good. He not have shop, but have everything of shop.” I figured why not, if it gets messed up, it s not like I am trying to impress anyone here.

So I agreed to let the guys take me over and get it done by this Indian man. We pull into one of the big yards and went into a building you rent tools out of. It is always odd walking with 4 of the Indian guys with me, they never go anywhere without everyone. Inside the building we were greeted by the SCW’s that run the tool renting desk. Son-no talked some Hindi to them and I was moved behind the counter by one of the SCWs and the other goes upstairs to get the guy that will cut my hair. Behind the counter there is a cubical sized area that has 3 sides and can’t be seen into from the counter. That is were a lone chair stood. They sorta hid me back there from Expacks coming in to get tools at the front desk.

After a few minutes went by and a tall lanky Indian man walks around the corner to where I was with a tool box and a smile on his face. He stretches his head around to see if the coast is clear and begins to work. He first flips over the safety poster on the side of the cubical to revile a mirror, the opens up a small hole in a platform that has a bottle of water, shaving cream, a 3inch paint brush and some clean (I hope) towls and blankets. That is when I realized I was in a “speak easy” barber shop. The SCWs at the counter were looking out while this guy did his work, my guys were just hanging behind the counter.

He started off by tossing a sheet around me and tucking it into my shirt. He then opened up his tool box which had a strait razor, scissors, and a sprits bottle. He said “Ready sir?” I said yes and he was off, he starts to cut my hair faster then anyone I have ever seen before with a brain surgeons look of concentration. He zipped half of my head and asked if it was ok in a matter of a minute. He asked if that was ok, I said yes and he did the other side the same, just as fast. Just about when he finished that side I heard an American greet the SCWs at the counter and ask if he could sign out a post hold digger, he also said jokingly, “What are all you guys doing back there, having a party?” to my guys sitting a few feet from my hidden area. Son-no replied, “no sir, busy day today,” and shoots me a wink. Haha.

Once the Hindi man finished the second side of my head he went around and cleaned up his work, did some detailing. I was very happy with his work, and how fast he did it. He then spoke some Hindi to Son-no and Son-no asked me if I wanted a shave too. If figured why the hell not and said “Cona” (yes) to the barber and he went to work giving me an old school strait razor shave using a cutoff bottle as a cup, some Gillette shaving cream and a barber brush. I have to admit I was a bit nervous but this guy worked with precision, I was shaved in no time, and it ended up perfect. You could have put a strait edge on my facial hair.

Once done that, he worked my shoulders a bit, tossed an arm at a time over his shoulder and worked each of those too. Kinda like it was in an old barber shop from back in the day, it was pretty cool. Finally he used the paintbrush to brush the hair off of me and whipped off the sheet covering me. And I have to say I am dam impressed. I can’t say I have ever had a better hair cut. He worked as a barber in his country for who knows how long, and was really good, and proud of what he did. And the kicker is he only wanted 6 bucks for the whole deal! Something like that would have cost me 30 back in the states.

He quickly hid everything back in its place and I was on my way. I have to say I was a pretty crazy experience, and one definitely worth mentioning.

These Hindi guys have really taken a liking to me, and have brought me into there world, there is a lot of cool stuff behind the senses here that most people don’t know about. I will have a picture of my new cut on here soon.




Pre-Haircut