My First Egyptian Haircut (Blog by Tom)

Well that was certainly an experience.  I just got home from my first Egyptian haircut.  My first mistake may have been going into a men’s hair salon that doesn’t have any windows.  The entire front of the store is covered in giant pictures of men’s hairstyles.  So I walk in and ask for a haircut.  The man behind the counter directs me to a barber’s chair and I compliantly sit down.  The hair stylist then comes out of the back room and welcomes me.  He asks what I want and I tell him that I just want my hair shortened.  He asks, “How short? Long, medium, short, or very short?”  My instincts tell me not to go short so I tell him that I would like my hair medium length.  He then proceeds to cut the left side of my hair in a fairly normal fashion.  He stops and asks me what I think of the length and I tell him that it looks good.  The stylist then instantly transforms into Edward Scissor Hands and proceeds to cut my hair at a frantic pace working his way around my head and then back to where he started and around again.  At this point I realized that my “medium” and his “medium” did not mean the same thing but it was too late.  The haircut proceeded at this frantic pace until he asked me if I wanted my hair washed.  I politely declined but he insisted that it would only take a moment and so I obliged.  The real excitement of the experience came after the washing.  I sat back in the barber’s chair and he began to brush my hair with a small round brush in a style that I couldn’t quite determine.  He then broke out a hair dryer and continued with the round brush.  I wasn’t a big fan of this styling but I thought that I would just buy a bottle of water after leaving to unstyle my hair on my way home.  However, just to foil my plans the stylist then put gel in my hair and began to sculpt it into a strange form with meticulous care making sure to adjust every stray strand.  This was strange to me but I thought that I would just go with the flow.  Then he proceeded to spray my entire head with hairspray and continue this meticulous sculpting.  This process was so foreign to me and so absolutely amusing that I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud.  After paying too much for this treatment I decided to keep my hairstyle until I could photograph it for this blog.  When I met Katie in the internet café she didn’t even recognize me.  Needless to say I will not be going back to that particular hair salon.  Here are some pictures (check out the bangs and the stylish part at the side):