A Visit to the Local Barber

I honestly can't even tell you the name of the place but, after more than a month without a haircut, today it was my turn to visit the local barber shop. Quite an experience it was. Among my major objectives was to avoid having to pay the exorbitantly high prices they can allegedly charge around here for a simple haircut. I had been told that a lot of the folks here go to "Ike" -- who they say does a good job, but charges something like $22. Ouch. I don't think I've ever coughed up more than about $18 -- but I'll admit to being plenty cheap when it comes to haircuts (okay, maybe just cheap in general). So given that Ike was out of my league, my careful research led me to this other place (again, name unknown) in the downtown area, down the street from the Lionking where we had our photos taken a couple of weeks earlier for our recently issued carnets.

So in we strutted, and I was soon seated by a nice young gentleman from Cameroon by the name of Armando who insisted that he and I were going to speak English to each other. I pretty much told him to just go for it. And go for it he did. I hadn't seen clumps of my hair falling like that since I was checking in to West Point and getting introduced to the Cadet Barber Shop.

But the truth be known, I think the guy did an admirable job, even if it was a bit heavier handed than I might have thought I needed. No problem, I figured, I should be in good shape from now until Christmas. And who the heck over here is really going to notice?

The onle disappointment in it all was that, despite my best efforts to do otherwise, I might just as well have gone to let Ike work on me. The charge for my "high and tight": 8,000 CFAs, or somewhere between $16 and $20, depending on the exchange rate. Hey, but I got a scalp massage included in my plan.