بكم؟- Haircut/facial/massage/threading...

I got a haircut today. You're votes definitely supported this decision, but I probably would've gotten one anyway. It was just getting too long, and with all the sun and warm air, it was starting to get spoofy and frizzy. Not then ideal.

After grabbing some 1 LE pastries from a bakery for breakfast, I went with my صاحب (so-HAAB - friend) Ben to a barbershop a couple of friends had told us about just a few blocks from the dorm. I had actually gone solo the night before to get the deed done, but the place was closed, even though it was 5 pm, well within the posted hours of operation. Oh well.

Ben and I entered, greeted the barber and sat down. He then fixed me up some  شاي (SHAAY - tea) and we began telling him what we'd like done with or hair. He didn't really speak any English, and I hadn't really been schooled on barbershop terminology in Arabic, but I made due with several hand motions and repeated قصير قوي  's ("very short"). We then settled in to our chairs, ready for the first-class treatment that awaited us.

Our friends who had visited before made us well aware of what to expect upon a visit to the barber-shop. Apparently, the idea of simply stopping in for a 15 minute hair cut was absolutely unheard of. It was a full length production, that involved a lot more than simply some scissors and a comb.

The first part of the process was my first ever facial. Our barber took some grainy looking powder (which I think he said was mud from the sea), added some water, and then began lathering our faces with it. It was cool to the touch and had an earthy, natural feel/smell to it. After the mud had been applied, he gave us each a quick head massage, and then got down to the meat of the matter.

I was originally planning on simply getting a buzz, but I was convinced to let him manually trim me down. His work was quick and meticulous, and he soon had sheared most of my damaged, sun-dried locks off. After the cutting was complete, he applied an uber-healthy amount of green glob to my head, and began rubbing it in. The picture at the top of this post encapsulates my appearance at this point, along the lines of what I'd imagine a zombie German punk rocker to look like.

After we'd both been cut and shampooed, he began massaging the mud off of our faces, and then took us to a sink where he rinsed our hair. This was followed by a nice, relaxing back massage. I was beginning to feel comfortable. A big mistake.

The final part of the process was something known as "threading." I'd never heard of it before, but apparently it involved taking string and plucking hair from your face. Our friends who'd gone before us informed us that it was quite painful, but I shrugged off their warnings. How much damage could a little thread due?

I settled back, and waited for him to go to work. He grabbed a nice length of thread, looped it, and put the open ends in his mouth. He then positioned the string above my eyebrows, and let a rip. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. It honestly felt like tiny scissors tearing at my skin. Each pull of the string brought an intensely sharp sting. He worked above my eyebrows, below them, my hairline, my cheeks, and finally my ears, by far the most painful area. When he was done with one side, I realized I was half way done, bit my teeth, and gritted it out. Little did I know, he'd saved the worst for last: my nose. While doing my nose, he latched on to a stubborn piece of hair that wouldn't come out initially, causing him to tug forcefully on the string, pulling my head with it before the follicle finally came out. Needless to say, by the end of the entire procedure, I had tears welling in my eyes.

But all in all, it was part of the experience. I'd never had a facial, a massage, or threading before, and it was simply something I had to do while in Egypt, where a service like this was far cheaper than it would've been in the US.

But how much cheaper? That's for you decide. In this week's edition of the بكم؟ Game, your challenge is to guess the total cost of my barbershop visit in Egyptian pounds (LE). Just a refresher: about 5 LE equals $1.

 Additionally, let's revisit last weeks contest. I asked you to guess the price of a packet of Borios, which contained six, cheap, imitation Oreo's. Once again, no one was correct. Robin Soukup came the closest with a guess of 1.25 LE, but she was still significantly off the actual price of .50 LE (1/2 LE). That's right...a pack of six cookies costs half an Egyptian pound. In other words, less than 10 American cents! That's absurd!

So, since you guys seem to be hitting a dry spell with this guessing-the-prices thing, I'm going to revert back to "closest guess wins." We'll keep the prize from last week, and say winner gets 10 packs of Borios. Have at it.