JEDDAH, 31 December 2006 — Young Saudi barbers are charging double in Mina for a head shave than their expatriate colleagues. As one would expect, lines to have your head shaved (part of the Haj ritual for men) by a Saudi were much shorter than for the cheaper imported barbers.
“Despite their flashy uniforms, there’s not much difference,” said Abdurrahman Atash, a local pilgrim on his first Haj journey. “They change their blades while the other barbers use disposable ones.”
Atash was also a little squeamish, he said, about getting a close shave with the occasional nick from a barber with a non-disposable razor using a jar of antiseptic cleaner.
“They’re changing the blades out, but also dipping their razor into those jars all day long,” he said.
Yemeni pilgrim Saleh Ali was also not willing to go to the Saudi barbers — who are working as part of a Haj Saudization program, a national policy to gradually replace foreign workers with domestic ones — because they were charging higher prices and not using disposable blades. He said he went to a barber who was using an electric razor, because he felt it was more hygienic.
“The electric-razor guys are cheaper, faster and healthier,” he said.
Indeed, an electric shave is around SR10 while the disposable-razor shave will set you back up to SR15. The Saudi barber with the non-disposable razors was charging SR30.
The question of hygiene is on the minds of many pilgrims. Last year it was reported that some pilgrims might have contracted hepatitis from getting their heads shaved at Mina.
Head shaving is part of the Haj ritual that symbolizes for men a spiritual rebirth. The high demand for the service leads many pilgrims to set up their own unlicensed and impromptu sidewalk barbershops.
Licensed barbers have a number of hangars in Mina.
Unlike previous years, huge piles of hair was not visible at the bridge exits nor was there thousands of discarded blades on the ground that caused hundreds of injuries to pilgrims who lose their slippers in the crowded ordeal of throwing stones at the Jamrat.
Most of the barbers were locked down on the outer sides of the bridge, not in people’s way, as they were placed behind orange plastic-knee high partitions that covered a fair distance of the bridge’s length.
