Take a Little Off the Top

The other day I noticed a sign in English “Barber Shop Men and Children” on David Fridman, just off Yehuda Ha-Maccabi. Reassured by the sign, today I stopped in for a haircut. Baruch, who cut my hair, was sitting at a small table on the sidewalk in front of the shop, reading the newspaper. He and the other barber, both in their late 50’s or early 60’s, were clad in short white coats and each wore a kippah. As I crossed the threshold Baruch greeted me with “b’vakashah” (please) and followed me into the shop.

“Atah midaber Anglit?” confident that the sign had brought me to a place where I could communicate my complicated and specialized styling needs in English. After all, this is the Holy Land where Samson had one of the worst hair days on record. It wasn’t enough for Baruch to say, in Hebrew, that he does not speak English, but his partner made it a duet. I couldn't bring myself to turn back at this point, however. After all, it was only a haircut. As I sat in the chair, Baruch did say, “short?” The customer in the next chair, then added, “you want short?” so I thought “let the trimming begin.” What a craftsman. First he went to work with sheers, then an electric razor for trimming, and then a thinning sheers. He pulled a piece of cotton from a metal container, dipped it in a shaving solution, brushed the hairline around the ears and on the back of the neck and with a flourish, through the small cotton ball onto the apron covering me. He used a straight-edged blade to finish the hairlines and then took another cotton ball, this time dipped in alcohol to clean the lines he had just shaved. With the same flare, this cotton ball ended up on the apron. Then he took a straight razor and went over the remaining hair to make sure that there were no straggling ends or misplaced strands. The performance ended with a large brush to remove any clippings from my neck and shoulders.

After he handed me the mirror, not one of those wimpy hand mirrors, but a 1 ft by 2 ft mirror that could go on a wall, I exclaimed, “metzuyan, yofi” (excellent, great), to which Baruch, delighted by my Hebrew, rambled in Hebrew about why did I say that I could not speak Hebrew! I also now know the Hebrew words for short, medium, and long, not bad for 60 shekels.