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Friday, January 5, 2024

The Barber of San Roque de Grecia

With apologies to Gioachino Rossini (The Barber of Seville)!

I had the best haircut with the best ambience ever this morning! My hair has been needing a trim for far too long. I had made an appointment with another salon this week but when I arrived they were closed, nobody showed up to open the shop and so we left.

Our town of San Roque de Grecia has a barber shop and salon - Barbería Gómez. We were in San Roque this morning for other reasons and I said to Lance that we should stop at this shop and I’ll see if I can get a cut.

I walked in and there were two men sitting in two traditional barber chairs. One was obviously the barber because he was wearing the traditional white barber jacket. So I apologized for my poor Spanish and indicated I needed a trim.

I thought maybe they would send me to the room where women’s hair seems to be dealt with but, no, I got seated into a real barber chair! It even had small ashtrays built into the chair arms, back in the days when people smoked indoors. I have never been in a barber chair before. On went the hair cutting cape and the cutting began. It was obvious that I was in the hands of a professional.

But it gets better! There was a guitar placed on a small sofa used for seating customers. The second fellow that was there when I arrived picked it up and started playing classical guitar. Then they both started singing Spanish songs. It was amazing. I had live music the whole time I was in the chair.

My hair is wavy/curly and I guess a bit tricky to cut. It came out just the way I wanted it. Other salons have tried to straighten it before cutting and I can never handle it once I get home. Barbería Gómez is the only place I am going to from now on.

Cost: 5,000 CRC (about $9.67 USD) and I gave him a 1 mil tip (1,000 CRC or about $1.93 USD).    

Here is a link to listen to the Singing Barbers:  https://fb.watch/poXeZxUQgV/

2 comments:

Photolera Claudinha said...

Love that story!!

Diana Miskell said...

It was absolutely Pura Vida! I’d for sure try out a barber.