The Best Haircut In JORDAN🇯🇴

Harry and Mac spend an hour in a barbershop in Amman, in the rain, three weeks since Harry’s last haircut and two days before flying to Pakistan.

It is the strongest counter-example in the bundle to one of Harry’s own rules. Try the street version of everyday services is built on the pavement barber beating the indoor one at a fraction of the price. This is the indoor one, it costs 20 dinars — exactly what he pays in the UK — he says plainly that it isn’t cheap, and he calls it one of the best haircuts he has had anywhere, if not ever.

What the hour actually contains is the answer: jackets taken at the door, tea and coffee, music, a barber of thirty years, a beard trim, a full straight-razor shave, then hot waxing of face and nose and a head massage from a second man. You are not buying a haircut.

The other thing it records is a working note — he and Mac had been editing for six or seven hours straight and went out specifically to break the rhythm.

Key moments

• [00:00] Raining in Amman, and about 15°C — his warning that Jordan in winter is not as warm as people expect.
• [00:30] He assumed the shop would be closed, Friday being the holy day. It isn’t.
• [01:11] Jackets taken, tea and coffee brought over, music on.
• [01:42] Arabic tea, very sweet.
• [02:19] Three weeks since his last cut in England.
• [02:51] The barber has thirty years’ experience.
• [03:52] A beard trim — his first ever, having grown it out for the trip.
• [03:52] He cut his own hair once in lockdown, did a bad job, and has respected barbers since.
• [04:22] The barber has done the tourist route in his own country and rates Wadi Rum among the best places he has been.
• [04:52] Confirmation that this is cold for the Middle East, and that the rain is unusual.
• [05:36] The full shave.
• [05:36] On hospitality: in England, he says, they tell you to sit down and be quiet.
• [06:12] Flying to Pakistan on Sunday.
• [06:50] What he takes from the trip — learning a little of the language in every country. See learn the local language.
• [09:01] The straight razor used on the hairline, which he is told gives a better and longer-lasting result.
• [10:33] A second man takes over for waxing and a head massage; ten years’ experience.
• [11:03] Hot wax, described as being for the skin as much as the hair. It stings without being painful.
• [12:04] The nose.
• [12:47] Why they came: six or seven hours of editing straight, and a need to break the rhythm before going back to it.
• [15:25] The shop is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., which he contrasts with British hours.
• [16:26] The bill: 20 dinars.
• [17:00] His verdict — not cheap, the same as he pays at home, and worth it for an hour of it.
• [18:00] One of the best haircuts he has had in another country, if not ever.

Extracted pages

• Jordan
• Amman
• Mac
• Try the street version of everyday services

Obs: the barbershop’s location is published in the video description and Harry recommends it on camera, so the business is not named in the bundle. The experience, the sequence of services and the price are recorded in full.