Sunday, July 12, 2009

Barbershops of the World - Extra

Poland! I went there with Debs. And because we were going to the wedding of some friends we met while travelling, I seized the chance to resurrect the popular Barbershops of the World feature from our travel blog. That way I would look all smart for the big occasion, and also publish something exciting here.

It went mostly according to plan.


Having spent hours wandering around Praga - the hip/upcoming/creative bit of Warsaw - and finding nothing suitable, we spotted a cute little shop in the cab on the way back to the fancy schmancy Old Town.

We had to wait for his 90 minute lunch break to finish, then at 3 o'clock we waltzed in, slightly startling the elderly barber, Tadeus. We had a quick chat - him in Polish, me in half Russian half Polish - and came up with a plan. Grade 2 on my head, grade 1 on my face. Simple! Or so I thought.

It's part of the rules not to interfere once Mr Scissors has started work. Debs doesn't understand why, and neither do I, but it's just more fun like that. So I sat back and enjoyed as his crazy, shaky hands proceeded to skin my head at about grade 1, then wave the clippers over my cheeks and chin, achieving a very patchy grade 1-and-a-halfish.

He also nicked me just behind my left ear with the cut-throat. At least it had been nicely sterilised by dipping it into a pot of... stuff beforehand. Er...

I left with a neat and tidy head, but giant fluffy patches all over my face. Not the greatest cut in the world, but quite amusing nonetheless. He also loses points for not making use of that rotary "Barber's Stool" device which is attached to my chair in the above pic.

Cost PZL30 (EUR 6)
Cut quality 5/10
Fear factor 4 - shaky hands razor man

And as usual I left with little bits of hair all over my clothes. It always happens, no matter how tight the cape is around my neck. Debs reckons it's because they use the same brush on everyone, thus depositing as many bits of hair as they manage to remove. Smart barbers might like to try a hairdryer, instead.

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