Bald Faced in India

Two months is a long time between shaves, but I'd promised myself I wasn't going to shave just anywhere, and the barber's in China were all to formal and enclosed, I mean, who wants walls, glass and fake lighting? I'm still staggered that I couldn't find a street side option anywhere in China, but that's okay - I did as soon as I arrived in Delhi.


The options in Delhi are endless, but this one I particularly liked - maybe you can guess why from the images.

Another month, another shave

So another month has passed, and therefore time again for a street side shave session. This time: Phnom Phen, on a wide street that, while it allowed traffic to pass, was actually shave central.

After selecting the middle chair, I met my barber and tried to coax him into a smile for the obligatory before shot:

Reserved he remained at the beginning, an artist perhaps still in thought in preparation for his work on a canvas that also doubles as my face. But a splendid job he did, and in recognition he allows a broad smile as the moment is recorded.

For the record, this one cost 3000 Riel, approximately 80 cents AUD

Barber Session (Hanoi)

Does this look like a reputable place to get a shave with a cut-throat razor?
Yeah, I thought so too.
What you see is the entirety of this barber shop, or "Hot Toc" in Vietnamese. This is fairly common - virtually all of them are like this - a cute roadside establishment with a single chirpy guy who does the deed.
So, now for the before photo:

I particularly like the little girl in the bottom right of this photo. Clearly she's quite intrigued by these two happy folks...

Et voila. Smooth as a baby's bottom, with both customer and the eradicator of facial follicles beaming like a couple of school kids on excursion...

note: I'm a little late in posting this one - this was almost 4 weeks ago whan I this occured, so I'm about due for another - I think Cambodia this time... I'll keep you posted.

Simple Pleasures

I'm a sucker for simple pleasures, and this is a very brief tale of one: having your face shaved in a foreign country (that is in a developing country). Today I had that experience, and shed a month or so of my facial follicles. I've provided some evidence for you - nice huh?

In this case my trimming was done by one who spoke no english, but we quickly sorted 3 important things:
1) 30 baht (about $1.20)
2) Face only - I'm happy with to grow my locks for a little longer
3) New razor blade (actually this was more by observation)

(Note the 'goaty' dissapeared - this is just the way that he chose to remove the hair. As many J&J people commented when I retained a smigen of facial hair one time "mate, the mo has got to go")

All in all a great experience. So now I have another month to work on developing more scruff so that I have the pleasure again. Will update more once I've visited a street side barber somewhere in Hanoi...