Finding the hairdresser of your confidence abroad is not always easy! I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had my favorite go-to hairdresser in Germany, as well as one in Turkey. But now that we are traveling full-time and have a constant change of locations, this has become much more difficult.

But not for James! After our time in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it was time for him to get a haircut. One day while we were in Medan, Sumatra, where many people speak little to no English, we were on our way to the laundromat when James wondered if we could find a barbershop nearby.

And, we found one! A young man, we guessed him to be about 16 years old, in a small barbershop that we might not have gone into back home in Germany.

But James really wanted to have his hair cut, so in we went where we ended up having to communicate with hands and feet.

The entire haircutting process took time. A lot of time! We also have to mention that it was over 40 degrees (over 100 F), and James, to say the least, was sweating like crazy under the thick blue plastic cape. But, as they say, no pain, no gain.

By the way, James has been to the barber a few times now, and it has never taken as long.

While James was sitting and praying that his haircut would finish soon, an older lady entered the barbershop and came right up to me. And then she started to chat with me. All my attempts to make it clear to her that I did not understand Indonesian failed. She talked and talked, rubbed on my arm (I suppose to see if my tattoos are real), and seemed to be as happy as a little kid.

Her smile was irresistible, and even though we don’t have any idea what she was talking about, we like to think back to this visit.

Not only because of the funny experience with the lady but also because of the young barber, who cut James’ hair so intently that we will keep his facial expressions in our memory forever.

He put so much effort in and sacrificed so much time! And all that for just 93 cents!!