March 03, 2004
Haircut
I got a haircut the other day.
Getting a haircut here is both a pleasant and a frustrating experience. First, the pleasant part. I've found a place that cuts my hair in a way that I like, or at least don't mind. (I'm not very picky in this respect.) The barber is an agreeable fellow who talks if I feel like talking, and shuts up if I don't. I not only get my hair cut, but a shave and a beard trim too... and if you've never had that done for you, let me recommend it; it just seems terribly civilized somehow. And at the end of the day the whole thing, generous tip included, costs only about $11. Hard to argue with that.
The frustrating part... well, there are two frustrating parts. One is that, while it's all very nice, it's also all very slow. Really slow. Over an hour, start to finish. Even if I skip the beard trim and shave, I'm not escaping in less than 45 minutes.
I suppose I should just relax and enjoy the more leisurely pace of things, but that's surprisingly hard to do. It's all very nice at first, but somewhere around the 35 minute mark I start to get twitchy. Something at the bottom of my brain says this is too long to be spending on a haircut and Ibegin to fidget and squirm. There's no way to hurry things along, though, so I just have to be patient.
The other frustrating thing is the struggle against the elaborate post-haircut procedure. The barber wants not just to cut my hair, but to gel it. To spray it. To style it. To blow dry it. To dust some powder on it. To spray it again. To style it some more.
To slap a pleasing aftershave on my cheeks. To brush me twice, once with a big brush and once with a little one. To offer me q-tips for my ears and tissues for... I'm not sure what the tissues are for.
I'm not up for most of this. When it comes to haircuts, I'm a low maintenance kinda guy. Blow drying is not a part of my life. My gel days are past. Hair spray, get it away from me. It's not really a question of personal style or the lack thereof... well, maybe the lack thereof. But really, I think it's more about not having the time.
Anyhow, my point: an individual struggle with the barber is required to reject each of these. Gel? No? Surely sir would like some gel. Come, it is very good gel. So natural, the gel. Let me just... no? Is sir sure? Really sure? Truly? But this gel is so fine, so... No? Well, now for the spray. What!? Surely not!
This can go on for quite some time. And it gets repeated every time. They know me, they remember me, but they are just not going to acknowledge that I don't want this stuff. And they're so pleasant generally that it's surprisingly hard to say no.
The odd result of all this is that while I like the haircut, like the barber, and enjoy the first half hour or so very much, by the time it's all done I'm more or less running out the door. And then walking down the street with my hands in my pocket and my head hunched a bit, because I smell funny and my hair is full of gel and spray.
Posted by douglas at March 3, 2004 01:39 PMI find it rather amusing. Perhaps the guy is very dutiful, but you could always say no to whatever you don't like, no need to feel obliged whatsoever. I have been going to the same barber for a long time, and it took time till we got to know each other. And yes, he insisted on using the gel as well in the beginning.
Posted by: Dragos at March 5, 2004 01:27 AMEverything takes longer here in Romania, we take our time here.It's an old habit from the communist era. When there is no competition and no fear of getting out of business or fired you get lazy. Back in the "good old days" of communism there was no competition.The state owned everything and you could screw up and not get fired, you didnt work under presure from the owner who is afraid to lose his bussines, time didnt cost money and of course creativity was not a priority because it was not you getting broke it was the state and you still getting paid no matter how incompetent you really are. Most people belive that the state never loses.The state lost. We have democracy now and a new set of values but old habits die hard. Maybe a haircut in Cuba or North Coreea last for two hours.Or not.I never went there.
Posted by: guest at March 5, 2004 01:48 AMYou just summed up everything I dislike about going to the barbershop. I'm afraid it's universal. [1] The painful chit-chat, the mind-numbing pace of the scissors, the sparring over the buzzer and the gel. God, how I loathe that. I have a sideburn (singular) of about twenty-five hairs, but only on the right side of my face, because barbers automatically think I want my cheeks buzzed, and I usually can't stop them before they make at least one stroke, right there, on this failed, abortive, pathetic attempt at a sideburn. [2]
Now I use a tweezers before I go to the barber. Which kind of defeats the purpose.
Remind me to get my hair cut before I visit, though.
C.
[1] Except for the "half an inch shorter = let's cut off 2, 3 inches before he can complain" and the "let's cut it so the grisly scalp underneath shows through", which seem to be strictly New York City things.
[2] It's basically a 'shaving induces hair growth' experiment, the left side acting as control, which is still hairless. Not that I ever needed this proved to me, since my Filipino cousin Jeric used his dad's electric razor on his upper lip from the age of eight on. He had a full mustache by the time he was eleven. Man, he sure looked peculiar.
Posted by: Carlos at March 5, 2004 03:09 AMOne more thing.
We the people from the Balkans from Bulgaria Serbia or Romania we are not idiots or lazy or rude or substandard or eurotrash or whatever you like to call as.I would like to see France or Germany or Britain in what shape it will be after 50 years under communist dictatorship with no help from the U.S. and with a lot of "help" from the ever friendly russians.I know a victim when i see one. And Romania was exactly that.A victim of history.Whith the russians impose communism with tanks imagine the pretty picture. We don't have decent highways we don't have super speed trains like France we dont make Mercedes Benz like the germans and there is no but.We don't.That makes us idiots? Is that what you wanna say Doug? Say it and get it over with.I'm getting sick of the arogant atitude that we get not from you in particular but from the west especially from Western Europe. In stead of understanding us for what we are they say you didnt do this you didn't implement that and so on. How about a fair approach towards a country oppressed by those soviets and by a crazy guy named Ceausescu for 50 years. Why the romanians acepted Ceausescu and communism for so long? We had no choise the russians got his back.The iron curtain and so on. Clear thinking romanians if there was such a thing back in those days couldn't do a damn thing whitout getting arested and have his fammily "comuted" by the securitate.
I read very litle of this blog i found it via Google but i get the picture of what this is about.It's about you and your wife bitching about how idiotic the balkans countrys are.Your not the only westerners doing a blog about living in Romania i read about a dozen.I found only one blog made by a westerner that was fair with Romania. The rest were just like you arogant and without a clue about the Balkans and especially Romania.
"It's about you and your wife bitching about how idiotic the balkans countrys are."
Hm. Teresa Nielsen Hayden has implemented a remarkable solution to the problem of impolite commenters: she removes all the vowels from their posts.
I think HDTD has found its first test case.
Now, do you want to talk about haircuts, "guest"? Or do you want to insult your hosts some more. In every culture I'm familiar with, what you're doing is unspeakably rude.
I expect an apology to Doug and Claudia forthwith.
C.
Posted by: Carlos at March 5, 2004 04:42 AMOh, my. Why do I feel the need to answer to this? I shouldn't, really. But I've got this thing about being called "arrogant"... I also believe it's elemental to be polite to guests.
We the people from the Balkans from Bulgaria Serbia or Romania we are not idiots or lazy or rude or substandard or eurotrash or whatever you like to call as.
Well, torr8@lycos.com, I challenge you. Give me one, just ONE, quote from our blog where we call the people from Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia or any other Balkan or non-Balkan nation "idiots", "lazy", "rude", "substandard" or "eurotrash".
I'll make it easy for you and tell you that we have a search-function on our blog.
That makes us idiots? Is that what you wanna say Doug? Say it and get it over with.
I dare say that is not what he wants to say but anyhow, here you imply that he wants to say it but hasn't. Earlier you claim that we have said it. There is a slight fault in your argumentation, my dear.
I'm getting sick of the arogant atitude that we get not from you in particular but from the west especially from Western Europe.
Eh? If you're not getting this arrogant attitude from us in particular -- then why are you getting upset at us? I'm at a loss to understand.
How about a fair approach towards a country oppressed by those soviets and by a crazy guy named Ceausescu for 50 years. Why the romanians acepted Ceausescu and communism for so long? We had no choise the russians got his back.The iron curtain and so on. Clear thinking romanians if there was such a thing back in those days couldn't do a damn thing whitout getting arested and have his fammily "comuted" by the securitate.
We don't deny this, never did. I'm German and I see what the Russians did to East Germany. But this is also the reason why I can tell the difference between "this is post-Communism" and "this is Romanian essence".
I read very litle of this blog i found it via Google but i get the picture of what this is about.It's about you and your wife bitching about how idiotic the balkans countrys are.
Why, this must be it. Since you read very little of this blog, you just don't have a clue what we are writing about. You assume you know but you don't. That is arrogance right there.
We don't bitch. We don't insult. The only insulting piece of writing on this blog is by no one other than you, torr8@lycos.com. I have to say that you are by far the rudest, most insulting and impolite Romanian I ever met.
I feel ashamed that the rest of the world will get a very distorted picture of Romanians by reading your offensive post.
Claudia
Posted by: claudia at March 5, 2004 10:25 AMMy policy for trolling is ignore. As simple as that. :)
Posted by: dragos at March 5, 2004 12:06 PMAnybody remember the comic skit, based on an article in the "Onion" satirical newspaper, about the U.S. relief effort to the former Yugoslavia? The "Vowel Drop for Bosnia"?
Americans would donate a vowel from their names (the "i", maybe, from "Diana", to leave "Dana" ) so deprived areas like Srpska could finally enable themselves to be pronounced -- Sirp-ska.
I'd be worried, in that cultural context, if stripping all the vowels from a Balkan-troll's comments might not be construed as a reference to that joke. As if the troll be taxed -- heavily, unfairly -- to support groups that might be traditional adversaries.
Better to strip all the consonants...
You didn't say it(idiots erotrash etc.) you implied it.And about "the rest of the world" reading my post. The rest of the world??? You mean the 3 people and 2 escaped lab monkeys (pouncer and carlos)that read this ? I'm sure your more popular than Boris Becker.I don't wanna explain nothing to you. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.This is the way you are and that's it.Your arogance and ignorance about the Balkans are bricks in a wall of cultural blindness that you have.You can't judge a country by the holes in the ground and by it's economy.You can only see a still picture but you forget that a country is defined by it's culture.Go see a concert go to the theatre see a play, go to the opera to art expos museums go to clubs, blend in without prejudice.When you do that you can claim that you have a fair opinion about a country.If i go to Germany thinking that your all nazis and eat at french restaurants and watch american movies i never get to now the german people.Thats exactly what you are doing .Thats why you are ignorant and arogant.You got it? I think not.Anyway don't bother to reply because i wont read it.I have better things to do than read this utterly ignorant and silly blog.
Posted by: guest part 3 at March 5, 2004 11:38 PMwow, it seems that haircuts make people get very emotional. that's always good to know. i am romanian and i find the post very very funny, so there must be something wrong with me.
Posted by: kit at March 6, 2004 02:46 AM[Chuckle] Good one, kit. Thanks.
Posted by: Claudia at March 6, 2004 10:13 AM