Malawi Haircuts Plural

It’s probably always a bad idea to get your hair cut in a foreign country, especially if you want a style that only your regular hair stylist has perfected for you. It’s a lesson I should have learned after the Mohawk incident in the Dominican Republic. Forgetting all about this past experience, I had high hopes for a stylish haircut as I walk into the half barbershop, half curtain store.

Brothers, can you tell by the similarities? Must be the hair.

I could tell that the barber was up for a challenge so I pulled out my phone and showed him a picture of me looking fantastically dapper after a previous haircut (Thank you sailor bubs, Halifax). “Please, Mr. barber, I want to look like this again.” I said to him. He didn’t speak English but got the idea and went to work. To his credit, and given the magnitude of what I was asking from him, he did a decent job. To me it just felt off, uneven and rigid. A couple weeks later and it needed to be removed.

What hair I wanted and the hair I got  

For my second haircut in Malawi I was in the city of Blantyre searching for a new barber. This time I selected a style that could be replicated easily, not quite a buzz cut but a short cut with a middle peak. The new barber just wasn’t up to the challenge that the hair presented and I could sense his apprehension as he agreed to cut it.  

My poor hair had never encountered some of the strange techniques he used throughout the procedure. For example instead of going from front to back, using the electric razor, he went in any and every direction he felt was going finish the job. My personal favourite technique was one that he used to clean the edges of my hairline. Sloooooowly bring the razorblade to the skull for accurate hairline trimming, and then with lightning fast action, flick the razorblade away from the skull to maximize precision. At the end of the ordeal I was basically left with a buzz cut.

Missing friends and Sailor Bup's back at home.

But it wasn’t the end. I just wanted to pay the guy and leave but there was more. I was brought into a back room where there were chairs that looked like virtual reality simulators and some other reclining chairs. I sat down in the reclined chairs. The haircut included a hair wash and head massage! I admit it was nice walking out the barbershop without any stray pieces of hair everywhere.

The head massage gave me time to think about my appreciation for the barbers back at home. They do such a great job cutting hair. And mom, thank you, you did considerably well for the many years you were cutting my hair.

Most recent transformation, luckily hair does grow back.  

The final station in this multi tiered experience was a combing station. They sat me down in a chair that faced a small mirror and a lady began to comb what little hair I had remaining. This went on for a couple minutes until at last the experience was finished, and that’s the end of my haircut story in Malawi.