Wolfman Gets His Ears Lowered

It's been almost two months since I've had a haircut. As you may have gathered from the title of this post, I was a hairy man. I was finally able to go to a barber in my neighborhood that a few of my friends recommended. All of my previous barbers have done the following: drop everything to argue down another customer. He could be doing a great job of cutting your hair and is quick about it. He's about half way through your hair cut, and in walks this fool that wants to have a debate with your barber. SMH... it never fails. The barber begins his argument by telling the other person "You're a [dang] lie! Tom Brady is not the best quarterback of all time! Peyton Manning is!" You immediately begin to think to yourself, "Mother [Father]!!" So as the two engage in the battle of "wits," you're looking like you cut our own hair using a fun house mirror and some safe scissors. Every now and then, he'll shave off a whisker or two, then back to debating the jive turkey that started this mess. 30 minutes later, your hair cut is complete. You've paid your bill and dapped up the barber. As soon as you finish the dap, he turns around and says, "Now what was that [nonsense] you were talking earlier? Brady who?" This was also the case here in Saudi Arabia. But I had no idea what they were saying because they were speaking Arabic. It wasn't a very animated nor long conversation. Which is always good. I hate when people come in the shop and piss off my barber while I'm in the chair! The barber also answered his phone and carried on a conversation. But this was while the customer before me was in the chair. So, it appears that answering their cell phone while cutting your hair is also a universal trait of all barbers. HOWEVER, the quality of the care versus the cost here was even better than getting your hair cut in the 1st floor bathroom of a freshman dorm by your RA from STRONG ISLAND for $10 (HU RHO!). The service included: hair cut (Caesar, of course), edging with a straight razor that was cleaned with fire in front of you, beard and mustache grooming, exfoliating with coconut mixture and steamed towel, face massage, aftershave and shoulder massage. I told him I was good on the shoulder massage, LOL. But this man also possessed another trait that is common with other barbers: being deeply interested in your life. He wanted to know where I'm from, what I did and what was I doing in Saudi Arabia. Obviously, there were some things that were different. In this shop, there was no hip hop or reggae playing in the background, there was no smell of burnt hair, and not a single pedestrian came in requesting to use the facilities. I never noticed until now how much I miss those little things. The total cost of the service was 20 Riyals. Which is about $5.33 tip included. I quickly got over my nostalgia once I learned the cost of such excellent service by Joel, my barber.


So tell me, did I get a bargain?