Haircuts Around the World aka "How to Save $300 While Traveling"

Boy Math is traveling for nine months and saving hundreds of dollars on haircuts vs living at home.

Boy Math is traveling for nine months, getting a haircut every two weeks in barbershops across the world where each costs about $3-$6 so I basically saved about $400 vs not traveling.

Haircuts ended up being one of the more unexpected but fun parts of my trip.

I actually stopped personally shaving because every time I needed a shave, I just went to the barbershop for a hair and beard trim.

I would Google a barbershop near the hostel where I just checked in, read a minimal amount of reviews and then not make an appointment.

The barbershop feel is similar everywhere: dudes cutting hair, hanging out with their friends, talking trash and having fun.

Sometimes they spoke English well, sometimes not at all.

Sometimes I would have full convos about life in their country, sometimes I just sat there silently.

My favorite was in Jordan, where most of my favorites happened. The shop was no more than a five minute walk from my hostel, the barber was great, all his homies were hanging out and they all shared a lot of insights into their life.

My least favorite was in Tanzania. I specifically went back to this shop because the night before climbing Kilimanjaro I asked for directions from some guys sitting out front. I told them I’d visit after the climb and so I did. But that same guy wasn’t there and as soon as I walked in I knew I should have left. They weren’t hospitable. I’m pretty sure the barber had never cut a white person’s hair before. And the worst part, he overcharged tf out of me: 40,000 KES = $16! I’m honestly still pissed I let that slide.

In Egypt, I had a similar faceoff. I didn’t negotiate before, a big mess up on my part. “It’s freaking Egypt, Zach, come on.” At the end, the barber who couldn’t have been older than 17, tells me it’s 300 Egyptian. We’re basically eye to eye, real close, and I stare back blankly. “Really?” “Yes.” More staring. He didn’t back down, holding eye contact. Sure bro, take my $10 USD that should have cost maybeeee $2.

Budapest was the most expensive, clocking in at $22.

Lombok, Indonesia cost $3.41

My money tracking says Vietnam cost $21.27 but I don’t remember that one?

Albania was $10.22

Oh, no tip btw.

These are all straight cash, no tip.

My last cut was in Nairobi, Kenya. I was a bit traumatized by the Tanzania cut so I didn’t really trust the barber when I on a whim ducked into a barbershop on the top floor of a souvenir market.

“How much?”

“500 Kenyan Shilling.”

“400.”

He laughs and says sit down.

I just wanted to negotiate for the sake of negotiating, having grown to appreciate this art throughout my trip.

It was just a beard trim and he cleaned up my neckline. Couldn’t trust him with the scissors. And good thing! At the end I asked him to trim my eyebrows and he busts out kitchen scissors

I’m losing my hair and eventually will probably rock a shaved head, so I’m appreciating haircuts while I still can, so getting haircuts on the road was a fun experience that actually saved me money versus living at home.

Within two weeks of coming back, I got two haircuts totaling $85 which is about what I spent on haircuts my whole trip. Haven’t gotten one since, a month later.