The Beauty Shop

OK, here's one. Getting your hair done in Turkey is somewhat of a challenge. There is one salon in the Alley owned and run by a Turk who was trained in the States and used to work in Texas. He is a great guy, speaks English perfectly, lots of fun to be with and good at the trim. But I color my hair and it is long and he charges the same price as they do in the States. Now where is the third world discount in that? But he has put the fear in me about getting my hair cut on base. He says they have no training there. Of course, they are his competition. So my solution has been to get my hair colored on base and stop cutting it. I figure I will donate it to Locks of Love when I get back home. In the meantime it is getting long.
So let me tell you about my trip to the beauty shop last week. It is quite fun most of the time, I get a manicure and a pedicure, my eyebrows plucked (more on this later), and my hair colored and styled for about $50 plus tips. Dude. It's all good except for the plucking. I keep meaning to bring a camera with me to capture this interesting process as it is hard to describe. The girl puts a long piece of string in her mouth and twists it up and uses it to pluck out your eyebrows. It makes waxing feel like a massage. I know it is hard to imagine, I will take pictures next time. So this last week the girl who plucked my eyebrows pretty much insisted that I dye them to match my hair. Now I can say I have had my eyebrows dyed. Can you? The real fun part of the experience was while I was getting my pedicure, the eyebrow plucker asked me if I had any Tylenol. I asked her to bring me my purse so I could check. Instead she got my purse and proceeded to rummage through it herself, helping herself to gum and sharing it freely with the other people there. Now that had never happened before. I should say that I go there at least once a month and they know me, better than I thought, apparently.
Always an adventure, driving or otherwise.
I didn't have any Tylenol.