Saloons Aren't Just for Men Anymore

Last weekend I made my monthly trip to Salah Saleh’s Saloon for a haircut.  I’ve blogged before about the fact that it is indeed spelled Saloon and not Salon, and no, they don’t serve alcohol, but they do serve Lebanese coffee.As has become our habit,  I got into the chair and he says, “The usual?”, and I reply “Yeah.”  It was a Friday afternoon at the end of a long week, I was mentally exhausted and the TV news was on (Al Jazeera English - pretty much the best news you can get on tv, comparable to BBC), so he cut my in silence.  I set my $10 on the counter as he cleaned his barber tools and left.

I may have mentioned that folks (well, the guys at least) at the Embassy get their hair cut at one of three places - Salah Saleh’s Saloon, the Modern Barber Shop about a mile away, but close to our closest food store, and at home.  Apparently there’s this guy from Thailand who will come to your apartment and cut your hair for $10, and give you a neck and scalp massage for an extra $5.00.  It’s funny, but people tend to be loyal (I know I am) to their barber and stick with the guy.

The Thai guy apparently also cuts women’s hair, but apparently he doesn’t do long hair so well - women with short hair love him, but others say stay clear.  There are also a number of women’s salon’s around - there’s a Chinese run salon on the other side of the block from some of our apartments (favored no so much for the styling but for the fact that you can also get a manicure, pedicure and, with advance notice, a massage - the all-in-one package that a lot of folks like); and then there is the Modern Hair Salon - one door, two establishments, turn one way it’s a salon, turn the other and it’s a barber shop, but I couldn’t say for sure because I’ve been loyal to Salah.  There are several places out by Sinkor, which is a newer developed part of town where a lot of professionals live and apparently they’re pretty good too.  But I will say this, most women who are about to go on leave comment at least once that they’re looking forward to a real hair salon.  (I won’t go into the stories of those who have tried going into a Liberian salon - let’s just say you hear a lot of “Never again, they just don’t understand white hair!”  And by the looks of it, they’re right.  [I will add that we hear the opposite from our Liberia colleagues who try the "Western Salons."])

So last week I was walking back from my hair-food shopping run and came across this sign for the Chinese salon near the Old Embassy Compound:

I’m glad to see that Liberians are practicing gender equality.  Or maybe they actually do serve alcohol in addition to the manicures and pedicures . . . .  I'm not about to betray Salah to find out.