Post Titled: A far cry from Supercuts.
I need to go somewhere else to get my haircut, I really like Mustafa down on the Arab end of Sonnenallee but he makes me look like a faschist every single time. This self imposed indecision has lead to a delay -a paralyzing indecision- which has caused me not to get a haircut in a very long time, so I now I am starting to look like Willy Beamish...
I started going to Mustafa because he is inexpensive and stays open fairly late. The barber shop is small, three or four haricutting chairs and a back waiting room with a TV up in the corner which constantly plays bollywood dance-dramas, surprisingly racey top ten arab music videos and wierd soap operas from unidentifiable countries. Guys smoke, chat, dissapear into the back room with old men, (smoke hash?), twiddle their thumbs...
I sit there fliping through the local weekly papers, mostly full of crazy/gawdy photoshopped ads for local eateries, travel agencies and furniture stores. It is technically first-come, firt-serve, but often it is the case that the tough guys who show up after I do seem to think they have priority, which becomes akward- considering I am the only white guy ever there.
Most of the guys coming to get a haircut look like they just got a haircut earlier the very same morning, it caters to supershort and supergroomed locals, guy kind of like local YouTube star Tiger:

When I first went to get a haircut there we were chatting and of course:
"Woher kommst du eigentlich?"
"Ahh, ursprunglich aus Kalifornien..."
"Also, Amerikaner-!" (pause, he stops cutting hair and stands looking at me in the mirror)"Wir haben kein problem, oder-?"
"Nay, die Politik hat absolut nichts mit uns zu tun."
"ahh, gut." (resumes cutting.)
Overcame that little hurdle fairly smoothly- he's Lebanese, I'm American and the politics of our two countries truly do not matter, oder? No. Good to get theat out in the open and out of the way.
But still, I can't get short-cropped faux-rufio-hawk or gangster haircut like all his other clients, it just doesn't work... so sadly, I have to go somewhere else... but where?... I' probably just keep going back anyhow, out of some strange sense of loyalty- besides, will any other haircut I can find for €10 in Kreuzberg be any better? Probably not.
Still, the Turkish love of Bollywood films and stars is always baffling to me, but it exists...