I got my final Buenos Aires haircut today. When I came here my hair was pretty short because I had been going to barbers in San Francisco. I was wearing my hair short, and going to my regular salon was costing me $75 a pop. With my hair short, I needed it cut almost once a month, so it got out of hand. I found a barber in the Tenderloin, near where I work. He was an old Vietnamese guy in a funky little barber shop that was like it was out of a time warp. He cut mostly young guys who got funky gang member haircuts. I felt a little odd there. Then I found a gay barber on Market Street near Castro. I knew the place existed, but I never tried it. For $15 dollars, the guy used shears and cut my hair right before I left for Buenos Aires. It was a good cut, but it was not designed to grow in. As it did, my head got kind of furry and bushy. So, I went to Club Creativo for my first haircut.
The guy who cut my hair was the same guy who cut my hair last year when I was here. I really liked the cut he gave me last year. When I returned to SF, I wanted to keep the same shape. I went to a salon in the Haight and a women totally messed up my hair. I had to go to another salon to get it fixed, and that was how I ended up getting trapped paying $75 per haircut.
Well anyway, this guy, Uriel, gave me another good cut. But he kind of made me uncomfortable. He seemed like he was in a really bad mood. At least for $75 in San Francisco, I had a stylist who made conversation. He liked going to Thailand, so we'd talk about that. But Uriel, after asking me a few questions, just got busy with his shears, and gave me an amazing haircut, but not much conversation.
When it came time for my next cut, I just took a chance and went back to Club Creativo without an appointment. If Uriel was there and available, I'd go with him, but I didn't think I owed him any allegience.
He wasn't there, and I got another guy who also gave me an amazing haircut. When I say amazing, I mean that they use their shears like Edward Scissorshand. They snip and trim and snip and cut into the hair so that it not only lays right immediately after they cut it, but also grows in nicely. It was for that reason, that I was able to go without another haircut until today. I could have gone longer, but I didn't want to have to get my hair cut as soon as I got home. Instead, I wanted another cut that would grow in.
Men's haircuts here are varied. There are some guys with short hair (mostly gay), but not many. Most guys have long hair, and many guys have stuff going on in the back which I believe is still taboo in most parts of the US. I'm talking mullets, tails, shags, etc. I really like them. These are not your redneck, pickup truck, confederate flag kind of mullets. They look really cute. When I asked my former stylist, Brian, who studied psychology and stopped cutting hair, to cut my hair short in front and long in the back, he refused, saying, "I'm not giving you a mullet". So, here, I am very happy that I don't even have to ask, but automatically, my hair in the back stays long.
Well, anyway, today I went back to Club Creativo, again without an appointment. Uriel was not there, and his station looked very clean. I wondered if he didn't work there anymore. I saw the guy who cut my hair last time, but I didn't know his name and he didn't give me his card, so I felt less of an obligation with him than I did with Uriel. Still, I was glad that it looked like he would be cutting my hair.
The shampoo girl came and got me and brought me to the sinks where she introduced me to another woman who she said would be cutting my hair. The woman got up and leaned in for a kiss (for some reason I didn't kiss the guys before).
What amazed me was that this was the third stylist I've had there and again I got a great haircut. I was unable to really explain what I wanted, but she seemed to know instinctively. She built from the haircut I had previously and left the hair in the back longer as I wanted. And the best part was it only cost me about $14 or less.
I am going to miss cheap, good haircuts (even when I pay $75 I am not always satisfied, which is why I started going to cheap barbers).
From there I went to the gym for a bit, but it was too hot to work out. I then went to my favorite restaurant, La Cholita, which is a parilla, but is very informal and has a kind of hip feel to it. They have newsprint on the tables and a basket of crayons. I got a choripan, which would have been better if I hadn't tried to eat all of the bread and just ate the chorizo.
I came home and stopped at the fish store a block away and got a nice piece of salmon. I've been eating more salmon lately. I wish I had started sooner. The salmon here is great. It is wild Pacific salmon from Chile. It doesn't have that fishy taste that salmon sometimes has. I've been buying pretty big pieces, frying them and seasoning them with chile, soy sauce, cilantro and garlic. I then put the leftovers in the fridge and eat it for several days. It is great (next year I will be two blocks away from a good seafood shop).
I then went to my local corner fruit stand (pictured above) and got a half kilo of cherries. As we get closer to summer (with this heat, I still can't believe it is not summer), more and more fruits make their appearances. Cherries arrived a few weeks ago and I have been eating several kilos per week. They are really good. I usually don't like to buy cherries in the states because they are expensive and either they are sour or rotten. These cherries are really nice. They have great flavor and 95% of them are edible and really good. I also got some apricots, which are really small, but looked so beautiful with this nice pink blush (they are not as good as the cherries, but I'm not a huge apricot fan). I learned that they are called "damascos", which I didn't know. I think it is interesting, since they are probably named after Damascus, Syria. I picked up some peaches too.
The fruit here is very good. Reading other blogs, I've noticed it is something that other people comment on. I think there are probably a lot of farms in Argentina that grow more than just meat. I imagine that most of the produce is local, since imports don't seem to be big here. While we might have Chilean peaches in February that are picked while still green so they don't bruise on the long flight to the US, Argentines (like the Japanese) are limited to what is in season. But since it is locally grown, it is left to ripen longer, and when it arrives in the stores, it tastes like it is supposed to. I really like my corner fruit vendor and regret that I have not been going there more. I was feeling shy about speaking Spanish and didn't know how to ask for things (I have since learned), so instead I got most of my fruit at the Disco, where it is not as good.
So, as I count down the final days here, I am glad to be finding some things about Buenos Aires that I am going to miss. In San Francisco, there will be a lot of things that I will be happy to return to, but I will be sorry to leave behind good, cheap haircuts, wonderful local fruit and choripan!
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