Shave and a Haircut...Two Bits!

Awhile ago I made a deal with myself. I promised never to purchase goods at the fancy North American style shopping centers and, instead, find everything I wanted to purchase either in the market, on the street, or in worst case scenarios, in a shop downtown. This way I could get the full Zambian experience, put money into the communities in which I work instead of shipping it to Johannesburg or New Delhi, and, almost always, get a much better price. There were two exceptions to this arrangement: photo development and if I absolutely could not find a good somewhere else.

This has been very fruitful so far and with the assistance of one of my colleagues, Fred, who has sort of been my guide through Zambian life I have found everything I have needed within the local market. I surely could not have found these things by myself - assistance was definitely needed - but, since we've had lots of time over the break, a walk to the market now and then was not a problem.

The test, however, was to come with my first hair cut on the street. I had had one at Manda Hill, a glorified strip mall which serves as the primary shopping destination for local expats, because I was told that people here don't know how to cut "muzungu" hair. It cost K30,000, not bad by North American standards, but pretty pricey in the Zambian world. I began to think, however, that this was not way to get things done. I figured, since I was just getting a shave anyways (not a cut with scissors), that any street barber could accomplish such a task and that my hair isn't particularly "muzunguish" (as in straight) anyways. So I told Fred that I would like to go to a barber. "No problem," he said. He would take me to his guy.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I thought it quite likely that I would be walking out with very little hair. The barber was quite cautious, however. At first he had trouble believing that I was actually there for a haircut and not a shave. Once he overcame his incredulity he put an attachment on his shaver that took almost nothing off. I told him we could go a little shorter, by this time breathing a little easier myself that he seemed to know what he was doing. So he did it again, this time cutting down a little shorter, and did a very good job. Certainly, just as good as the barber at Manda Hill. By this point quite the crowd had developed - I don't think that it is every day that people get to watch a white man get his hair cut on the side of the road.

I also wanted a shave because I had developed quite the goatee over the fall. Again, he had a hard time believing that I wanted it to come off. First he took the bottom off but then questioned if I was sure that I wanted the little blip under the lip gone. "Yes," I said, "take it all off." Once again we had a similar pause at the mustache and again I replied that I wanted it off.

After all this hard work I wasn't quite sure how much I would owe. I was told that it would be K5,000 (or, $1.25 US)! I said that I could give him K6,000 seeing as he had done such a good job. It was K3,000 ($0.75) for the hair cut and K2,000 ($0.50) for the shave. What an unbelievable deal - I could get ten haircuts there for the price of one at Manda Hill. Needless to say, I'm hooked! I think that this is the closest I'll ever get to that old saying, "shave and a haircut, two bits!"