Biker Hairdressers

The best haircuts I've had since coming to Israel have been from biker hairdressers. Yup. You've heard right. Not the stereotypically gay hairdressers I used to love to go to in NYC (I used to pick them from Glamour Magazine), where I'd sit for hours on a Saturday taking in all the interesting traffic. Gerard Bollei in NYC hated long hair. And I wanted to look like Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac. I never did get to look like her but my hair certainly looked like her hair. He used to badger me about getting a short wedge cut. I pointed out the Hispanic receptionist to him with the long, beautifully layered hair. "You like THAT?" he shreiked in front of her. "It's aaawwwful!" But he did as he was told. He was my hairdresser for years.

Coming to a new country in the Middle East where everyone's hair is dyed every shade of red or cheap blonde was frightening. Hairdressing is big business here. Where I live, in the commercial center, you find around 4 hairdressers in each strip mall. And most seem to be straight. I only came across two effeminate-type hairdressers, one had a talent for getting my honey blonde shades just right (but went out of business) and the other gave me a nasty mousey brown color. One very popular gay hairdresser in Jerusalem had a smear campaign done on him a few years ago with rumors that he had AIDS and that customers were contracting the disease from him. He put ads in newspapers saying it wasn't true, etc. I was his customer soon after that - once - to show some support.

I went a couple of times to this place run by an American who rides a Harley (one doesn't "drive" a Harley - I guess). His haircuts were good but he is quite expensive catering to a mostly "anglo" crowd in the posher part of town. So Hubby told me about a place that's always packed - the guy rides a Harley too. The price was $50 less than the other Harley guy so I went. Turns out they are the only hairdressers in the neighborhood that have a cappuccino maker instead of just serving instant coffee so I took it as a good sign. However all these people were walking around the tiny salon drinking some evil looking green liquid that looked like kryptonite. There were a few little boys there as young as 10 getting the tops of their heads dyed blonde ala MTV. I showed the Harley guy a shade I wanted. Impossible. He just will not do any shade of red. Hubby was thrilled. The Harley Hairdresser said I'd like his results. He gave me a base color - put loads of different highlights in it, showed me a bottle with blue liquid in it and asked if it was ok to use that color. Before I had a chance to say "NO!" , the stuff was already in my hair. Never mind, it looks good. It's the best haircut and color I've had in 9 years since I came here. As Arnold S. says - "I'll be back."