Ali & the Three-Dollar Haircut

Next to the bunkhouse we are staying in is Ali’s Barber Shop, a place where there is only one price. All haircuts are three dollars fixed. Now Ali’s clients are solely US Marines on the base here and as we all know Marines have one style of haircut “high and tight”.

Which is basically a shave up to the “cover” a Marines cap line and then a Number One buzz cut on top, so there is not much in the way of variety. In the corner is a small TV blaring out Middle East TV Soap Operas, and every time Ali had to use the electric clippers he would turn the volume up so as to not miss any crucial plot lines, even worse is during the day when there is no Soap Opera he can crank up the music which is always some Arabic singer sounding like a cat is being strangled slowly to the untrained musical ear.

There is one magazine a semi soft men’s edition of unknown background that has photos of Paris Hilton in it. The mag is so well thumbed through that is has fallen apart well it always falls apart on the pages of Paris Hilton even in its decrepit state.

Both Ollie and I had haircuts today and in those first few moments I dreaded that Ali had mistaken us for marines and we were destined for high and tights but sanity and hand signals managed to convey the message and we both had great haircuts, not bad for three dollars and you even get a free can of coke thrown into the deal, now that’s value for money.