Haircuts Far and Wide: Seeking Out Taper Fades All Over the World

Submitted by Omar Cameron of You Are Travel

Tl;dr - When getting your haircut is part of the adventure.

As a frequent traveler, I’m ‘gone’ just as much as I’m ‘home’. To that end, I’m used to pursuing some of life’s necessities while I’m on the road - such as a haircut. I’ll be the first to say I’m not overly concerned with my hair, particularly when I travel (I usually come ready with some quality snapbacks), but I do enjoy a fresh haircut, and clean lines have a way of putting some pep in your step.

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Source: You Are Travel

The problem? Not everyone knows how to cut black hair.

In particular, if I’m traveling somewhere where there aren’t too many melanated people, I have to get savvy - crafty even -  when searching for a place to get ‘cut’. Particularly if I don’t want to end up looking like a hedgehog.

And frankly, sometimes that’s just what happens. Other times, it works out better than I expected. I chalk it all up to the traveling experience - stepping out of one's comfort zone, and letting the chips fall where they may. In many ways, some of my fondest travel memories are at least somewhat connected with a haircut I got in a place. Whether it was chatting with the barber, navigating a language barrier, or venturing into a part of town far off the typical tourist beat, many of these haircuts have been themselves an adventure within an adventure.

From Costa Rica, to Dublin, to Boracay, Melbourne, Istanbul, Vanuatu - there’s been so many experiences sitting in foreign chairs.

Let’s start with our control group - the great jobs my at-home barbers do.

There’s the amazing Keisha in New Orleans, and Jerrod in Oakland. Collectively, they’ve set a blueprint for what I ask for when I’m abroad - taper fade, straight razor line-up for the edges and the beard, with a semi-circle part in the middle.

When it comes to finding barbers who are comfortable with black hair while traveling, I’ll use every tool at my disposal. 

Google, Google Maps specifically, is typically where I’ll start. I’ll do a bit of research to see if there are any known neighborhoods where black immigrants, or people of the diaspora, may have settled. That proved to be a winning strategy in both Istanbul and Melbourne.

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Booking apps can be hit or miss.

Outside of the US, staples like TheCut and Squire don’t have much of a presence, though I did get lucky using Booksy to find a barber in South Africa (more on that below).

Seeking out members of the ‘diaspora’ part is key - Dublin is home to a healthy population of Brazilian immigrants, and it was just such a Barber who was able to shape me up when I was in town for a few days.

Social media, Instagram in particular, has been good to me. That’s ultimately where I found the great Chamo in San Jose, Costa Rica.

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If I know I’m in a city where there might be some expat black athletes…

(for example, American basketball players playing overseas) and if I’m truly down bad, I’ll take a look at their pages to see if they’ve posted about a barber they like in their adopted cities. 

Sometimes you just feel it out. If I pass a shop, I’ll try to take note of some of the tools I see in a barber’s booth. If there’s a pick, the right kind of clippers, a straight razor, familiar alcohols or aftershaves, and of course, if the old faithful hairstyle guide posters feature black people on it, I’m much more likely to give it a shot. Such was the case in Boracay, when I needed to get cleaned up before a wedding I was attending. 

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Now and then, I’m surprised by an outcome that was different from what I expected. Cape Town, South Africa, is a good example. On my first trip to the country, which also included stops to both Johannesburg and a safari, I thought I’d easily end up getting cut by a black barber. Instead, finding one proved a bit more difficult in Cape Town (I’m sure it would have been easier in Johannesburg), and I ended up getting a solid cut from a Thafeer at Blvck Sheep Barber, who is considered coloured.

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I’m not sure I have a favorite experience - each cut has had its unique special elements.

That said, perhaps the most exotic was in Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. 

Home of the jaw-dropping Blue Holes and stunning beaches, Vanuatu might be home to the most magnificent waters I’ve ever swam in. 

Equally captivating is the fact that the Melanesian people of Vanuatu (as well as parts of other Pacific islands such as Fiji, New Guinea, and New Caledonia) appear ‘black’, dark skinned with similar textured hair to mine, though sometimes it’s blonde. 

Source: Google Images

Source: Google Images

My cut in Luganville (the main town of Espiritu Santo) sticks out for another reason - so much has changed since then. I was about 100 points heavier when I got that haircut, and when I look at those photos, I think about two journeys - the action-packed one of that two-week trip, and the long road and all the hard work it’s taken to drop the weight. 

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So, what have I learned from all these haircuts?

Too many things to quickly recount, but there are a few notables that stand out. 

First and foremost - authenticity - I didn't necessarily need a reminder of this, but each of these experiences reinforces that I'm a traveler at heart. I yearn for the adventure. How unpredictable each haircut can be! I lean in. It makes me feel alive; it gives me energy. 

Trust, compassion, and camaraderie - Some of my favorite haircut abroad experiences are the ones where I can tell the barber is maybe a little bit nervous at the start. You might think that this would be equally off-putting for me, but that's not the case. I've learned to trust in the person whose chair I'm sitting in, if nothing else, as a way to make them feel comfortable, show them respect and compassion, and build them up so they can do their best work. In the end, even if it's through broken words, a language barrier, maybe a mutual recognition of a song or movie playing in the shop, I find that folks are happy to let their guards down. On the other hand, I find I'm often met with curiosity, interest, and a desire to learn about each other's lives. I relish the camaraderie.

Grounding and ‘rootedness’ - This may seem a bit contradictory given that I'm in search of a haircut, while traveling away from home, but in the best of cases, these experiences are just that - familiar, a reminder of home. The feeling when you've just gotten out of a chair, dapped up your barber, and hit the street feeling like a million bucks is a special one. It's a feeling that brings me back to my earliest days growing up in New York, my years in Oakland, New Orleans, and everywhere else I've called home. It's a warm reminder that you can find grounding even while on the road. 

I’m not sure where my next haircut will be, but good or bad, at the very least, I’ll have a story to tell. 

Source: You Are Travel