What price a haircut?

[arsenal]

Some tips from your man in the know.

You want a haircut. The salon looks lovely and is populated by young rather attractive guys and gals. In you go. Within seconds you are surrounded by six or seven, all of them shouting and laughing and giggling and you try to pretend this is OK but it doesn't stop and at some point you feel really quite abused and wish to be anywhere else and then when it gets too much you just leave and their behaviour stays with you all day and you feel you've experienced a new form of assault. And you have.
So. Trundle around until you find a small barber with one oldish guy, preferably asleep and absolutely no one else there. Go in. He will give you a haircut with no nonsense. Trust me.

You have a toothache. You go into the dentist and you can use your wechat to communicate. You have a choice of two dentists. One is a big bloke with huge eyebrows who looks a bit like Leonard Brezhnev and has fat sausage fingers. The other is a pretty youngish woman with a ponytail. For the love of God choose Leonard. He will be deft and calm and do a good job on your teeth. The woman will be harsh and uncaring and in dental terms really quite brutal. Trust me.

You wish to deposit a large amount of money in your account. In you go, take your ticket and when your turn comes sit down in front of the cashier. Within a minute she'll xall for help and then there's two discussing your account. Then another comes to 'help' and then another and another. There are now five tellers talking about your account and what not. Eventually you get the deposit paid in and you leave the bank but your head is all over the place and you're struggling to comprehend what just happened. Use the ATM, even at midnight depositing large amounts is no risk although in the depth of winter there might be a street cleaner in there but he's there to keep warm, not to Rob you. Trust me.

[christianpfc]

The salon looks lovely and is populated by young rather attractive guys and gals.

Similar experience in Dawei, Myanmar. I walk past a hairdresser spot several staff I would like to get to know better, so I go in for a shave. It turns out they never shaved a foreigner, probably never shaved anyone. They find a razor (mechanical, knife or blade) and for lack of shaving cream use shampoo. My worst shave ever, not cheap either, and I didn't get to know any of them closer.

But tell us about the cost of a haircut please. Here in Phnom Penh I can get a decent haircut (saloon, aircon) for 1.50 USD and a friend who has been here for longer says the cheapest he found in Phnom Penh was 1.25 USD. One of my aspirations in life is to get a haircut for 1 USD or less.

[gerefan2]

One of my aspirations in life is to get a haircut for 1 USD or less.

Well don’t come to the UK then. After shopping around for weeks I had a basic haircut last week and it cost £13 (just under 600 baht) and that was OAP rates. The normal rate here is now £16 (about 750bt).

The next one will be in Thailand at 100 baht...no matter how long off that is!

[a447]

Christian, I'm sure those guys who give haircuts out on the streets would charge less than US$1.

[dinagam]

This guy will gladly do it for you for less than a dollar in the cool shade of the trees.

[arsenal]

It costs 20rmb Christian.

We are now having an air raid siren practice. I kid you not. The air raid siren is blaring out all over the city. Do they think it's 1943?

[christianpfc]

...I had a basic haircut last week and it cost £13 (just under 600 baht) and that was OAP rates.

When I was studying in England, I remember getting a haircut for 6 GBP. That was in 2008.

Christian, I'm sure those guys who give haircuts out on the streets would charge less than US$1.

I don't think so. I had a haircut in Thailand by a mobile hairdresser (just a chair for the customer to sit on, a mirror that is hung on a tree, and a bag with his tools, for 50 THB. That was 2013.

It costs 20rmb Christian.

That's 3 USD. Way off my target! Mental note: if/when going to China from Thailand for a longer time, get a haircut in Thailand before.

[francois]

That's 3 USD. Way off my target! Mental note: if/when going to China from Thailand for a longer time, get a haircut in Thailand before.

3 USD = 100 Baht which is the typical cost of haircut in Pattaya.

[cdnmatt]

heh, speaking of haircuts this brought back a memory. This was back in my 20s when I was still good looking. I went for a haircut near the city center of Kuala Lumpur one day, and was pretty much sexually assaulted.

Now if it was a cute gay guy I wouldn't have minded, but unfortunately it was a woman. She kept me in that chair for about an hour, basically gave me a free massage along with the haircut, while constantly telling me to come to her place some day for what she called "enjoys". She'd groan in my ear while whispering, "I like to do it in the backside", and things of that nature.

My god, that was the most horrific haircut of my life.

Back on topic, if I can remember correctly haircuts in Khon Kaen were generally 60 baht, so 80 baht with a tip.

[goji]

In 2020 I had a hair cut for 2000 Kyat in Myanmar. At today's exchange rates, it is 84 pence or 38.5 baht.