The hair cut

We are leaving for Firenze and Milano today (Florence and Milan) to see a few friends. Before the trip Demetrio decided to get a quick haircut. The streets in Roma are so lined with shops you can get anything and enjoy almost any service just a hop, skip and a jump from your front door.

We walked to the dessert shop to get some desserts for after dinner and then off to the barber. This was no Great Clips or SuperCuts, the two young men that worked in this shop did everything the old fashioned way. The only electrical appliance was a hair dryer. Demetrio's hair was spritzed until the right dampness was achieved and then combed and cut very quickly but not sloppily. I was impressed. Next came the trimming of all the scraggly hairs that grow on the back of most men's necks. The young barber reached into a drawer and pulled out what looked like an 18th century straight razor and fitted it with a new blade. Part of me gasped silently because I had never seen a a real straight razor being used and I kept having flashbacks to Whoppie Goldberg and Danny Glover on the front porch of his house in "The Color Purple". She was at her wits end and he wanted a shave, determined and angry at the same time she holds the straight razor to his neck and before her trembling hand has a chance to nick him, she is stopped by Shug Avery. The best way to keep from fainting was to delve into a lewd Italian fashion magazine, and to watch the Italian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". After the neck shaving, I don't think I could of handled the sight of a full proper shave even though Demetrio has had it done many times before and swears by it, came the moustache trimming.

A pair of long and sharp scissors began a light but rapid clicking sound, every once in a while the scissors would actually touch his moustache and thus some hair would be trimmed. He opened his mouth, he closed it, they pulled his lip this way and that and after about 7 minutes, he was trimmed and ready. For all this we paid 13 Euros. What a deal!!!!