My first hair-cut abroad....

I'm sure this is not a topic that most would expect to start a start a new blog with. But hey, its me.. . Prepare to expect the unexpected always. Been a while since I stopped writing and decided to have fresh start.

This is my 4th trip to Israel and what was planned as a 3-week visit had elongated into a 2+ month trip and the signs of return seems pretty far off. The 3 month expiry on the visa provides some solace though. Not that Israel is a bad place but watching F1 with Hebrew commentary is seriously frustrating especially when the season is blossoming into such an exciting one with Macca looking in terrific form especially in the past three races (Monaco, Montreal & Indy...). Some people have however started attributing the recent turn in form to my leaving Bangalore and have urged me to elongate my stay though... :-)

Coming to the topic however, the unexpected elongation meant that I was forced to take a hair-cut in Israel. I decided to go to the nearby saloon and I stumbled across three shops all side-by-side. To my luck, all of customers present in the saloon's seem to be female. Not wanting to embarass myself by entering a ladies only stylist, I stood confused for a while.

I then spotted another guy waiting for his turn in the first shop and decided to opt for the same shop [Well, the phat chick in the counter also aided in making the decision.. :-P]. At first, the decision seemed to be a good one with the same person, doing the initial hair wash.. :-) and then came my turn to the barber. Confirming my worst fears, the barber seemed to know very little English. However, the customer seated next to me seemed to follow English and came to my rescue. The cutting then commenced..

The barber was enthusiastic about India and I learnt that he had visited India. Peculiarly, that seems to hold true for at least 50% of the Israelis I meet : quite a massive percentage by any standards. After a few minutes, he asked how the haircut was shaping up? I retorted it was good. He then asked whether it was good or very good?? If there is one thing I'm really good at, it is at pissing people off. Invariably every second conversation of mine, ends up in an argument. But I do know better than to piss off a person wielding a scissors and a blade. I promptly said "very good" and this seemed to enthuse the barber further and the scissor work continued... A couple of minutes later, he said he was through and to my horror, I faced a spiky hair-do.. and I went "Oh Oh.."

I then said, I don't like it that way and there was bit of corrective action necessary and what started as a medium haircut became a pretty short one. But the end wasn't that bad a result. It costed 60 NIS but compared to the rate at Japan, this was definitely a bargain. However, I did re-learn the basic lesson for all haircuts: You must know when to say "Stop".