Welcome to Africa column: My new Kenyan coiffure

In this edition of this new column, I will tell you about getting a haircut in Nairobi. I’ve gotten it done twice since we moved here, both times at a place at the shopping center close to our house. Parts of it are quite different than in Europe or the U.S.

I’ve gone to a place that’s a bit of a barber shop-salon combination – they cut both men’s and women’s hair – and therefore the haircut itself is like this – a sort of barber-salon cut. Like at a barber shop, they don’t wash your hair (for men, at least) before cutting it. The cutting part is pretty much the same – what I’m used to.

But then as they clean up, that’s when a few surprises come. Last time, but not so much this time (today), the cutter took a towel and essentially batted at my head with a large wad of it, like one would bat against a wall with a folded newspaper or magazine when trying to kill a fly. This was apparently to get the large clumps of cut hair, and perhaps some of the fine snips of hair that cling to one’s face, off my head. He did this a few times last time.

Then they disappear into the back and come back with a small plastic tub full of warm water. Into that they put a few drops of what smells like Pine-Sol – a disinfectant. Isn’t this for cleaning your kitchen floor well, rather than putting on your face and head? Then, as if getting whacked with a towel a few times wasn’t bad enough, they take a washcloth from this kitchen-floor-cleaning solution and wipe your face and back of your neck with it – not gently, but with great pressure, as if scrubbing dirt stains off linoleum (doesn’t it mean you have to use less elbow grease when you use Pine-Sol?). They also scrub your hair/scalp quite vigorously with this washcloth, I suppose as a substitute to rinsing the fine hairs out after cutting. After this step, one feels quite manhandled. No gentle massages while getting one’s hair shampooed at this salon.

I suppose I could try going to a different place, but usually I go during the day while Sarah has the car at work, so I don’t have many choices to get to by foot.