Off to the land of Arko & Derby blades!!

[Consettmag]

Woohoo!! Holiday time again..

Yes, I'm off to Marmaris in Turkey tonight - the land of great shaving stuff and cut-throat shaving barbers who will not only shave your face but head and back if you ask! :w00t: Wild!! Nostril and ear hair burning is a dream. They also do neck, back and arm massages after the shave! Having every bone in your hands cracked is something else.

Been before and it's fantastic - I also brought back loads of shaving stuff including every different Arco cream (5-6 I think some lousy!) 3 Arko sticks, 1 Boar haired un-named brush and dozens of packets of Derbys. Cheap as you like for everything.

As it's sweltering hot (40*C which is 100*+F) around this time of year, getting a cut-throat shave will be awesome, not much prep will be needed thats for sure, the whiskers will be wilting.

I'll keep you up to speed much later as to what other products are out there and how I get on...

Sorry about rubbing it in :biggrin: Bye for now..

[Raj]

Well, I did the same, last time I was in Side, Turkey. Bought a whole lot of their shaving cream (Bought 4 different flavours of Arko shaving cream. Arko sensitive is certainly very good), shaving sticks and Derby blades. They were dirt cheap and so was the food. Have a great time.

[SmoovD]

Enjoy holiday!

[Jarmo P]

Arko smell sucks.
It does not matter if it is or not a good shave stick, when that smell. I am not keeping Arko in my bathroom.
Cris the suzuki once sayed it smells like an urinal cleanser. I could not agree more!

[THECHEBB]

Wow! Have a safe & enjoyable trip and of course...shaves!:em17:

[burnwood]

Wow, that sounds like a wonderful trip. Enjoy it and think of us poor saps in the US who wont have that adventure.

[netsurfr]

Enjoy the trip!

[endcycle]

If the derbys are ridiculous cheap, any chance you'd consider picking some up for the B+B folks? :)

[OldSaw]

Don't forget to take some pics and post them for the rest of us to dream about.

[Raj]

One more thing, don't forget to visit their barber shop for that best of shaves with a staright razor. You can afford it in Turkey. They might just use the naked flame trick towards the end to singe off the small hairs left after shaving.
Raj.

[bonusmarple]

Definitely one of the pluses of living in Europe is the variety of locations you can reach easily by plane or train.

Turkey, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Denmark, France...

[Consettmag]

Hi chaps, just got back - had a great week! Weather was very hot, not as cheap as last time but in that heat, 40*+ you don't want to do anything! Well,..... moving swiftly on to the shaving...

I had one cut-throat shave out there and it went suprisingly well all be it, well, fast!! I watched it all over the top of my cheeks with some strain! The lad was around 22-24 yrs and asked "Hello?, please?, you want shafe?"

After "agreeing" a price of 10 Lira, £4, US$8 I gave him a 20 Lira note saying I wanted some change - bad move! I layed back in the chair and relaxed. He par-boiled the kettle, knocked up a small cup of lather that smelt like Arko, with a non-descript boar brush. (I got the exact same style brush much later at a market - stinks like wet dog :smile:). No hot towel involved :w00t: and no oil-like prep just straight on with the brush. After around 20 seconds with the brush he put it down and proceeded to massage in the soap with his hand, a further minute(!!) He loaded up a split Derby, got a towel over his arm and set to. He did a straight N-S all the way down, with just slight pressure, and no regard to grain!!! Then after a quick re-lather he did a straight S-N right up, again, no thought for the swirly neck grain. After a wipe down he then put on some stinging lemon cologne that cools once you prize yourself down from the ceiling like a startled cat! The results - bloody amazing, fantastic shave, not a whisker to feel! Crazy! All over in under 5 mins. He then suggested a nostril, eyebrow and earhole pluck/burn/snip respectively - another 5L. He set fire to my lug hairs great and used a strange cats-cradle like thread weave technique to style the eye brows, nose was just a scissor trim. I was looking forward to the flaming paraffin here :smile: After that he suggested a mud pack, I said "Don't tell me - 5lira?" "Just for you my friend" was the reply. There goes the full 20 :blush: The mud pack thing was great and a "free" massage, knuckle crack and neck crack (due to low Turkish pillows) rounded an eventfull 20 minutes.

I came out skint, but felt great, relaxed and had a shave I'll never forget! Looking back I think due to the humidity a massive prep probably wasn't needed, well thats my excuse! 20 second prep? Unbelievable! Marvellous, humerous, friendly, very streetwise people!

PS. The next day I had no razor burn, no rash and no ingrowns! Makes you sick doesn't it? :biggrin:

[soapbox]

What a great story. Thanks for posting it!