I don’t know why people don’t like Mondays. I look forward to them with eagerness and relish. I look forward to Monday as a day to dissect my weekend and welcome a new week because anything that starts must end on another weekend.
I also look forward to Monday because this is my designated day when I go for my weekly ritual, a ritual that I have tried to follow religiously over the years but have failed in badly often changing days of the week to accomplish it. It is something quite personal and something that you cannot do on your own very well except for a very few who are able to do it better when they are doing it to themselves!!
But don’t get me wrong, it is not what you are thinking so get your mind out of the gutter. It’s my weekly haircut and shave!
Now some would wonder why I look forward to this most intimate of rituals. After all, you may argue, it is just that; an action by a barber to trim your hair and give you a nice smooth shave that you can then live with for a week without looking like a rascal and then repeating the same thing next week!!
But for me, it is not the act of being shaved and getting a haircut that I look forward to, it is what follows after the haircut! You see I agree that there is nothing really exciting about the whole process but there is something really special about the excellent secondary service that you receive when you go for a haircut and shave. I don’t know about you but I have been having a haircut and a shave regularly since I discovered that I was greying up top because there is no better disguise to grey hair then a close shave. As for my beard which greyed long before my hair, it gives one a distinguished look when it is left neatly short with a starkly contrasting goatee to the little hair left on the head.
One way or another, in the past it made little difference whether I had my weekly ritual on any day of the week including weekends………..until I discovered a little out of the way barber shop somewhere along Kiambu Road that changed my routine completely. This is just like any other barber shop on any road, street or highway in Kenya. A place with a reception area comprising of a three seater lounge chair with a magazine rack and a reception desk, some barbers chairs facing some mirrors and a washing place somewhere in the back area. It is just large enough to fit four barber's chairs and with a staff of seven gets to be quite crowded when all the chairs are occupied. Three competent barbers provide the customary shave and haircut and there is no tea, coffee or soda served to bribe you to stay if the chairs are occupied.
But that is where the standard shave and haircut experience ends when the ladies take over and guide you in the back for a shampoo wash! When you get back to the barber’s chair all the next ingredients in this magical journey have miraculously arranged themselves neatly on the table. These include the various oils, lotions, portions and aftershaves that provide an integral whole to the experience.
Its starts with the customary, hot towel to the chin to kill any pimples that thought they would sprout after the shave, just hot enough to be pleasant to the skin but not to irritate followed by the rubbing of spirit and after shave to finish off any bad boys that thought they now had a chance to play and cause havoc to your face.
By now my skin is literally tingling as I await the next routine, the face wash and face massage. This is where your face is oiled liberally with a mix of...….I have no idea…..but which is applied in rapidly expanding circles around the whole face, around the eyes, around the mouth and cheeks. Any semblance of a headache, stress and fatigue is rapidly consigned to the dark corners of the mind and you feel rejuvenated and refreshed as the age lines are quickly worked on to make then disappear into your skin.
as the expert ladies work on your tired and aching muscles and rub away the tiredness and aching. Round and round, in and out, up and down they go until you feel as if you will conk out in sheer relaxation. But there is still one more stage before you can be released to go back to the big bad world of aches and pains!
The last and my second best part is the mid and lower back massage with a big massage machine that feels as if it grips metal bars for a living!! The sensation of this machine as it is guided expertly by the masseuse as it glides across your back needs to be experienced to be explained but many a time the ticklish me comes out giggling like a small boy in a pool of Fanta due to the sensation of this machine near the tickle zones of my body.
And there you have it, a magical 45 to 60 minutes of relaxing me time to look forward to every Monday, and the damage to the pocket, a mere 300 bob. Often the place is packed with men patiently waiting their turn for this most exciting of experiences for it is a men only salon. It’s amazing what great service will do to a place and keep them coming in for more and I would urge you to think of doing something similar on a Monday that will make you look forward to the day rather than looking at it as an interruption of a weekend.
And before I forget, the place is called “The Glamour” salon or just “TG” opposite the Hospital at Kasarini……………if you ever want to forget your troubles for an hour!
Just writing this story makes me tingle and I can’t wait for Monday to come!!
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