Turkish Shave

I went for my third and best shave in Turkey so far. The first six weeks of travelling I went without shaving at all and in the end, I did develop a kınd of beard. Since Istanbul though I've been hitting up the barbers every three or four days.

The experience starts with the application of a warm shaving cream wıth one of those brushes that must have a name, but it escapes me now. The cream around the moustache area is dabbed on wıth the poıtner finger. Then out comes the straight raser. A new blade is put in and then bit by bit my face is shaved clean. The detailed work is taken care of by pinchıng the skin taught and then shavıng it. The whole process is repeated once more for the smoothest closest shave I've ever felt.

Then the fire comes in! A small cloth torch is soaked in an alcohol mixture and set on fire. Then the firey torch ıs flicked at the peach fuzz on my ears and below my eyes, burning it off. Then the same solution is poured liberally into the barbers hands and rubbed into my face. This is the part when my feet can be seen wriggling about as if someone is strangling me.

That's where ıs usually ends but today I received a little extra. After applying some moisturizer the barber trimmed my nose hairs and shaved my neck. Then he started into my temples and then massaged the rest of my face. This was followed by a neck, shoulder and back massage. So I'm left feeling baby bottom smooth and extremely relaxed.

Thıs afternoon we're on a ferry to Datça. Yesterday we lived out my dream of cruising the small country roads along the coast on a scooter. We ended up at a seaside restaurant where we had some fresh prawns and watched the tourqoıse water lap against the beach.