Picture - Barber Chair
Pracob Cooparat
E-mail: pracob@sb4af.org
One evening while I was in Surin, Surin Province, I was free enough to have time to find some place to have my haircut. The bellboy at the hotel advised me there was a barbershop not very far from the hotel. So I did according to his advice, walked about 200 meters from the hotel and I really found a barbershop. It was dark then, and I was a bit worried whether the barbershop was still opened.
I went into the shop, which was opened. The women in the shop greeted me before I said any words, “Hi, darling”. She spoke in English, and I was a little bit surprise with the kind of welcoming words. Then I asked her in Thai, “Whether the shop is still opened?”. She exclaimed in Thai, “Oh my god,” and at the same time, she slapped at my shoulder very hard. She said she thought I was a “farang”. A farang (Thai: ฝรั่ง) is the generic Thai word for a foreigner of European ancestry. For some black Americans, Thais may call them “Black Farang”. Generally farang is a neutral word. While I walked at night in Muang Surin, the Samlor (Tricycle drivers) always mistakenly called me in English, “Hey, you”, for they thought I was a farang, for my size of 1.83 metre tall, and with white hair, and did not see my complexion clearly, or may be they were drunk at the night time.
The lady barber still had a lot of laughter for her surprise and mistaken me as a farang. I sat at the barber chair, and let her do the haircut. Noticeably, she was in good mood and talked quite a bit. I told her I want “medium cut” not too short and not too long. During the hair cutting, she told me about herself and her past background, that she was a Cambodian born in Phnom Penh, during the Vietnam War, she as a refugee fled across the Thai border.
After using the electric hair cutter trimming my hair on my left side of the head, she said, “Forgive me, for I was drunk today.” Her neighbors gave her free feast for the Children Day, with liquor she could not refuse. I began to realize that she was really drunk, but it was too late for me to go anywhere for the hair cutting was going on. I comforted my self that even she was drunk but with 20 years of experiences in the business, my hair cutting should be OK.
She told me furthermore, then 20 years back, during the time Cambodia was under the ruling of Pol Pot government and the Khmer Rouge, she learned man-hair cutting from the refugee camp, and that was a good place for practicing, for there were a lot of Thai soldiers as well as refugees in the camp. She showed me the price she got from her instructor for being the first in her class of Hair Cutting Skills, it was a pair of scissors, which is quite old and rusty, but definitely, it should be a good pride for her.
She settled down in Muang Surin and had her own small barber shop. Her business used to be more active, but now her employees, fellow female haircutters were all gone, got married with farangs, and gone abroad. So now she was the only one barber in the shop. Telling her experiences in the barber shop business, I felt a little bit better, though some time she was still blurred, couldn’t find her scissors she just used a moment ago.
I was right, she could do her job even she was still drunk. I told her that just cutting is OK, “I usually did not need shaving for I will usually do it at home.” It was my pre-cautionary routine to avoid risks of contacting HIVs, for not requesting any shaving at any barber shop. Furthermore, when the barber was drunk, it will not be a good time to have shaving with sharp razor.
Picture - Pracob Cooparat
You looked at my picture after the haircut. Not bad. Isn't it? The cost of haircut was 60 baht, I tipped her another 40 baht for I was not injured in the process, and came out of the shop safe and satisfied.
The picture you see is the one I took while did some minor shopping at a 7-Eleven convenient store in Muang Surin. I did put some jel to make my hair more controlled, but make me look more old-fashioned, like my father about 50 years ago.
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