We missed another Farmer’s Market as myself and Osc spent longer in Clon that we expected. The place was mobbed, jammed with cars on the way to/from holidays and flooded just to make everyone’s lives harder. However, none of this interfered with our mission to get our hair cut.

Catherine had noticed a new Turkish Barber had opened up on the ring road in Clon and thought I should check it out. I think it is only open a few weeks at this stage. I poked my head in the door and there were only two other people waiting which suited just fine.

The place looks great. Small but lots of nice touches including a big flat screen TV to keep you occupied. However, the TV was on TG4 which was showing their Saturday movie (A Summer Place). It was one of those awful pointless 1950′s yokes with no-one you have ever heard of. I hated those movies when I was a kid and they haven’t got any better. But I suppose it is a tradition to show crappy movies early on a Saturday afternoon. In any case, there was far more entertainment to be had watching people getting “treated”.

We were lucky that the guy in the chair had a beard so we saw lots of the services on offer. The barber was incredibly adept with the scissors and even more so when he took out the cut-throat razor to tidy up the beard. He dipped it in alcohol and then lit it which caused Oscar’s eyes to be glued to the remainder of the activities. Of course, he used old style shaving soap and a big brush to foam it up.

Then he upped the game even more – he took a giant cotton bug, dipped it in alcohol, lit it and then started swooping it towards the guys head over and over. Oscar went totally silent. This was presumably to burn off the various dodgy hairs that we older men seem to get in the oddest places.

He finished the guy off with a multitude of unguents and sprays and sent him on his way looking like a million dollars.

There were two more “quick trims” before us. The guy with the comb-over who asked for “not much off the top” was claerly living in a fantasy world all of his own creation but the barber sent him off loooking dapper too.

Oscar was next and went up to the chair very nervously. Suddenly he smiled and said “there’s a TV stuck in the mirror!”. Sadly for him it was also showing TG4. Normally GG won’t do kids on a Saturday cos it is too busy and he is on his own but he was happy to do a machine cut which Osc was cool with too. It took him no time at all to change Oscar from a pseudo-crustie to a fine looking young man. A great haircut.

I was going with my usual zero blade machine cut. Done in 5 mins and far better than I ever do myself. But that was not the end of it, I got the blazing bud treatment too which was fantastic. Then he really freaked me and cut my eyebrows! Ok, so they were getting a bit unkempt but they were hardly Rumpole of the Bailey. I was actually chuffed that he did them.

€20 for the two of us. When I originally saw his price list I thought it was expensive but it is a bargain for the effort he puts in. Next time I’m going for the €32 “The Works” which includes traditional hot towel Turkish shave.

Whether you want a manly treat or just a good hair-cut, give GG’s a go.

[tags]GG’s, Turkish, Barber, Clonakilty[/tags]