Getting a haircut abroad is always an adventure and you're never quite sure what to expect,
especially if there's a language barrier.
Well Marc got the best haircut of his LIFE in Istanbul, Turkey
and in this video we're taking you through the whole experience.
And it was an experience.
You'll have to let us know in the comments if all haircuts in Turkey are this amazing
or if we got really lucky.
And stick around to the end to find out how much it cost!
I’m getting this mop finally cut off.
It’s been too long.
And we’re in this cool area of Istanbul called Moda
and figured this was a good place to go do it.
And he’s making tea for us right now.
Yeah!
Yeah.
Don’t get that back home.
I think we should just…Marc has the most fabulous, thick hair that makes me so jealous.
Look at this.
But it’s got to go.
In the time since Marc's last haircut,
several months had passed and we'd been to 8 countries.
As the cold weather arrived, his hair was mostly underneath a hat -
- or a toque as we call it in Canada -
but he decided it was time for a cut.
How excited are you to get a haircut?
I’m really excited.
It’s been months.
Yeah.
I actually can’t remember the last time I had a haircut.
Your hair grows really fast.
And I’ve never had a haircut in Turkey before.
So this is great.
World haircuts.
International haircuts.
Add it to my international haircuts list.
It’s so cool they offer you tea.
I know.
Like the traditional tea.
I hope it comes out in a glass.
Oh no, I think it’s in a paper cup maybe. -Might be a paper cup, yeah.
Still good.
Still…I’m drinking tea while I’m going to the barber.
Here it comes.
Oh thank you.
Thank you, thank you.
If you've seen our other videos about Turkish food,
you know tea culture is huge in Turkey and people drink it everywhere.
It was nice to see that the barbershop is no exception!
It was so sweet of the barber to bring me a tea too.
Feel better already?
Yeah.
One half of me does.
Feel lighter on my toes.
Yeah.
Mostly it’s just fun getting a haircut here.
Yeah!
We’ll see how it turns out. -A souvenir that will last a couple months.
It’ll last probably a week or two.
Longer than the baklava.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, we don't speak more than a few words in Turkish
and the barber didn't speak English
so he ran over to the coffee shop next door
to ask his neighbour to come translate for us.
Hi.
How are you?
I’m fine, how are you?
It turned out the barber felt that Marc was parting his hair in the wrong spot
so he wanted to get help asking Marc's permission to change it.
The translator was lovely and helped sort everything out.
It was also a great excuse to meet another Istanbul local!
You can see Marc has really thick hair so it took a while for the buzzer to do its work.
How’s it look so far?
Good.
Yeah?
Shorter.
Definitely shorter.
Look at all the hair.
Oh my god!
You can make a wig from all this hair.
That’s insane!
That’s crazy.
With the buzzing portion complete, the barber went in with the scissors.
Feel better?
A lot better.
During this next part, Marc got to lie back and relax.
I hadn’t seen him looking so relaxed since we visited the Turkish bath.
I’ve never had to lie back like this before while getting a haircut.
Is it comfy?
It’s kind of great.
I could fall asleep.
You don’t even have to hold your own head up.
I know, it’s really nice.
Luxury.
Looks good.
It’s getting there.
With all the hair gone, Marc felt lighter and brighter already.
All done.
How’s it look?
Good.
Like a new man.
New man.
He’s good. -You want beard cut?
No.
Washing out all of the hair was as simple as leaning forward into the sink.
At other barbershops Marc's been to they just use a spray bottle to wet the hair down,
so this was much more thorough.
It’s such a simple change but fun since we’d never seen this at a barber before.
All clean.
Just when we thought there were no more surprises, the barber pulled out...a back massager.
This is my kind of haircut.
This was a first and Marc was in heaven.
It was such a nice surprise!
Oh yeah!
Have you ever had a back massage at the hairdresser?
Like…is this normal in Turkey or wherever you live?
Leave a comment and let us know.
I personally have never seen this before.
A scalp massage yes, but a back massage no.
That was a nice unexpected surprise. -This is the best haircut ever.
Based on this experience, I think it’s safe to say that Turkish barbershops are some of the best in the world.
What do you think?
Looks so good.
Oh…he’s blowing me off.
It was just fun.
It was full of surprises.
Yeah.
Every time I turned around, he was doing something new that I’ve never had before.
It’s awesome.
Just fun.
Yeah.
With less hair on his head and more tea in his belly than when he entered the shop,
Marc practically floated out to the street feeling all loosened up after his massage.
Just got my first Turkish haircut and it was really exciting.
He did all these things that they don’t do at home
like pushing my head forward into the sink and then getting all the hair out
and I got tea, which is really fun.
And the back massage.
I was jealous.
Yeah.
And then he was like blow-drying my hair while kind of like fluffing it up.
Yeah.
So it got lots of volume.
So we showed him the picture and then you had Google Translate.
Yeah.
And then he brought over the guy from the coffee shop next door who spoke English.
Exactly.
So that was really fun.
Getting a haircut in a new country is always an exciting time.
This barber was so sweet and kind,
we highly recommend going here if you need a haircut in Istanbul!
The shop is located in Moda,
which is on the Asian side of the city and it’s one of our favourite neighbourhoods.
We made a whole video about it, which I’ll link below.
If you need a hair cut while you're travelling and you don't know where to go,
find a neighbourhood you love and start there.
Or ask someone you think looks cool and ask their recommendation.
There are plenty of times I've just asked random strangers with cool style and good looking hair,
so that's a good tip.
Unbelievably, this haircut only cost 45 lira.
45 lira!
That’s like 12 bucks Canadian.
Maybe less.
For a much, much better haircut.
For so much care.
And a massage and tea.
Amazing experience and value.
We’ve made a bunch of other videos in Istanbul,
including trying some of the city’s best street food and drinks,
what to expect at a Turkish bath,
the European vs Asian sides of the city,
visiting historic sites like the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia,
and our first time trying Turkish breakfast.
We hope you enjoyed this video of Marc's amazing Turkish haircut.
Let's just say any future haircut that doesn't end with a back massage will pale in comparison.
How does this compare to haircuts you've had?
We'd love to hear so let us know down in the comments
and make sure to give the video a thumbs-up if you enjoyed it.
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Thanks for watching!