Santiago Style

Santiago is a city of unparalleled style. Upon arriving, we first noticed that we had underestimated the power of (young) love when we were in La Paz. Santiago puts La Paz to shame; the make out sessions are more intense, the weather is nicer, the clothing more elaborate, and perhaps more noticable than all the rest, are the mullets. To any soul who endured the late 80´s, the single ¨Achy Breaky Heart,¨or a Monster Truck Rally, the mullet is well known. There are many theories as to why South America has just recently adopted the mullet as their own. Some say it´s the 20-year delay in television broadcasting, or the fact that Diego Maradona, the greatest Argentinian soccer player to ever live, still embraces the party lifestyle that any mullet wearer must abide by.

(Billy Ray Cyrus - the inventor)

Whatever the case, the mullet is an epidemic in South America, of which they offer no vaccination. Of course, my mullet-aphobia could only delay the inevitable, I desperately needed a haircut myself. I would have to summon up all of my available spanish skills to aviod walking out of a Santiagan barber shop with a look of shame on my face and a hairstyle reminiscent of Jeff Foxworthy (and all of the infamous rednecks). So I stumbled into a carefully selected salon: one in which no mullets were pictured in the window. Unfortunately, the stylist who appeared happened to be a proud carryer of the mullet virus, but it was too late. With my elementary level spanish and a lot of pointing at pictures of the various members of N-Sync who appeared on the walls, I explained the haircut that I desired.

Things were going farely well, at no point during the haircut did my hair begin to resemble a mullet. My stylist turned out to be gay, what do you know? He found out that we were travelling and began to list off the most ¨romantic¨cities in the world to see whether I´d been: Paris, Barcelona, San Francisco...etc. I realized at some point during the haircut that I hadn´t been to any type of barber shop in over 4 years, in fact my last experience was in New Zealand in 2003. I have gotten by for years with a $20 grooming kit purchased at your friendly neighborhood Rite Aid...I´d like to say that this is due to my fear of mullets, but it´s mostly just an attempt to save the $15 per cut (I assume that´s what Supercuts is charging these days). Whatever the case, I made it out of there with a $5 expert cut, that in no way implies that my weekends are spent watching Nascar.

(Diego Maradona)

greatest goal of all time