The Haircut and Araf

I got a haircut today. It took 1.5 hours.

I've been meaning to get my hair cut for some times. A few days ago, Nina and Amelia and I were going to go get haircuts in Kiev, but that never happened. I never got my hair cut before I left on this little adventure, so my head has been quite unruly for quite some time. But enough is enough.

Jonas noticed a barbershop just a few doors down from the hostel. I stopped by around 1. The barber didn't speak much English, but I had brought a picture of myself from last summer that was a good estimation of what I wanted him to do.

This guy was not a barber, or a stylist, he was an artist. He took one look at the picture, one look at me, and went to work.

It started with a straight razor shave. My first straight razor shave, actually. It was glorious and curious. And he did it twice, just in case he missed anything. That took about 15 minutes or so -- the length of a normal haircut I would get in the States.

Next he went to town on my sideburns, shortening, thinning, fixing, I don't even know what else.

He never actually cut my hair. He buzzed the sides, but used one of those thinning scissors to get the rest of my hair down to size. Once I asked him to go a little bit shorter, but that was it. He knew what he was doing.

It was a good haircut, but the real fun began when he finished the actual cutting. First he blow dried my head, then took a glob of wax (I think it was wax) and put it on the end of some tweezers. He lit the wax on fire, and started whacking it into my ears. I don't know why, but it felt strangely enjoyable.

Next came the hair washing, which turned into a face washing as well as face massage. Then a neck massage.

He topped it off with a careful drying of my hair, and cleaning out of my ears with cotton. Incredible.

And it only cost 35 Lira, just shy of $20. I gave him a 5 Lira tip (how could I not?) and bid him adieu.

Later tonight we went out with Lily, her French boyfriend Thomas, and his two friends and a Spanish girl named Saray. We kicked off the night around 9 with some drinking in our room (the hostel doesn't let us drink in common areas), then around 11:30 headed towards Taksim and Galata tower for a Balkan band at a place called Araf.

The walk from Karaköy was steep and long, but worth it. Araf itself was about 5 or 6 floors up, on the top floor of an apartment building. There was a band playing Balkan music at full volume. Really an exciting scene.

The 7 of us (and a few of Lily's friends from Istanbul) danced the night away for a while. I ended up being a party pooper, though, because my stomach decided to give me serious pangs all night, and around 2:30 I couldn't take it anymore and got a cab home.

The cab ride was 20TL. I asked him to take me to Kabataş, for which he asked for 10. I figured it was a more than fair price, but that was until I realized I need to go to Çemberlitaş, not Kabataş. Same thing, but Çemberlitaş is on the other side of a bridge and much farther. He asked for 25 for that trip, but I managed with little effort to get him down to 20. Should have shot for less.

Packed for a bit (Jonas leaves tomorrow so I think I'm going to go to my dorm tomorrow too) then slept around 3.