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EveryHairstyle

Barber street or district, Turkey

Istanbul barbers

The barbers' shops of the old city around the Grand Bazaar, heirs to an Ottoman craft of the razor, the hot towel and the turban.

Istanbul's barbershops, from the lanes around the Grand Bazaar to the side streets of Beyoğlu and Kadıköy, keep alive a craft that goes back to the Ottoman Empire, when barbers worked in shops, at the hammam and in the palace. A visit usually means a haircut with scissors and a cut-throat razor, a hot towel and tea, and the barber's guild once ranked among the city's important trades.

From turban to fez to hat

Under the Ottomans, men's heads were covered, first by turbans whose shape and colour showed rank and profession, and many men kept the hair cut very short beneath them. In 1829 Sultan Mahmud II introduced the fez for officials as a modern alternative to the turban. In 1925 the Turkish Republic's Hat Law banned the fez and promoted Western hats, and with them European haircuts. Each change was resisted by some and welcomed by others.

The barber today

The Istanbul barber is known for close, careful short cuts with sharp fades and neat necklines, for the straight-razor shave, and for small rituals such as singeing stray ear hair with a quick flame and finishing with cologne. Turkish barbers have opened shops across Europe, especially in Germany and Britain, where the Turkish barbershop has become a familiar sight on the high street.

Hairstyles of Istanbul barbers

Regular haircutThe neat short cut of the Turkish barbershop

Still to be written: Turban, Head shaving.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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