India’s Best Street Barber 🇮🇳

Harry explores Mumbai on what he calls his first trip to India, struck by a skyline where towers and slums sit directly against each other. Having spotted a barber working in the street earlier in the day, he goes back for a shave rather than using a conventional salon. The barber speaks almost no English, works from a tiny pavement setup decorated with Hindu statues and a Hindu calendar, and turns out to be extremely skilled — shaving Harry twice over, doing the back of his neck, and finishing with a stinging face massage. The bill is 40 rupees; Harry pays 500 because the price was honest, and calls it the best shave he’s ever had.

Obs: this page is built from an auto-generated transcript. Harry describes this as his first time in India, though it was uploaded nine days after the Delhi Holi video — the upload order doesn’t necessarily match the filming order.

Key moments

• [00:00] First impressions of Mumbai — Harry finds the city overwhelming and unlike anywhere he’s been, singling out skyscrapers standing directly beside slums.
• [00:30] Context: India has over a billion people, the second-largest population in the world. He heads back to a street barber he’d spotted earlier, hoping the man is free.
• [01:01] Meets the barber, who doesn’t speak English; Harry checks by gesture that filming is okay.
• [01:32] The routine begins — a wash, then a thick cream Harry jokes looks like toothpaste.
• [02:32] A look at the setup: a pavement pitch with Hindu statues, a Hindu calendar, and his tools laid out. Harry assumes he pays nothing to trade there, and his attempt to ask how many shaves a day he does doesn’t cross the language barrier.
• [03:02] The straight razor comes out — Harry notes the barber cleans it and checks whether the blade is new.
• [03:50] The shave itself: fast and visibly skilled.
• [04:35] A second pass over the whole face to catch what the first missed.
• [06:12] The neck, and then the back of the neck — something Harry has never had done before.
• [07:01] A face massage to finish, which stings.
• [08:05] The bill: 40 rupees. Harry hands over 500 and explains it’s a reward for quoting an honest low price.
• [08:37] The verdict — 40 rupees is just under 50 cents, and the 500 he paid is around six or seven dollars, roughly what a shave costs him in England. Two full passes, the back of the neck, and a massage make it the best shave he’s ever had.

Extracted pages

• Place: Mumbai
• Country: India
• Tips: Try the street version of everyday services, Reward honesty and hard work