I’m currently in the midst of the horrors of packing, so pardon my lack of posting (or lack of original posts anyway) lately. I did, however, have a lovely weekend which involved Cat in Rabat and Mr. Cat in Rabat, and a lazy Sunday involving a late night bar run (because the shops had already closed).

And then today, I broke a special record, getting my hair cut for the first time in 20 months. You heard me - I had not snipped a single hair in 20 months, mostly out of fear of Moroccan stylists. That might sound awful, but those that I would trust are out of my price range and as for the others, well - let’s just say a foreign acquaintance of mine was practically given a mullet by a regular Meknes salon.

But taa, you say - you never talk about personal stuff like this in your blog!? Whatever is going on?

You see, this particular salon was noteworthy for one thing (okay, more than one, but the others have to do with hair and tanning and would probably bore you unless you live in Meknes and are actively seeking those things). This salon was noteworthy for Rachid, the awesomely flamingly gay hairdresser.

Now please - no one take offense until after I explain why this is noteworthy. You see, in Morocco as in many predominantly Muslim countries, most hair salons are gender-specific. This particular one has always been for women only. The reason behind this is that women wearing hijab do not remove it in the presence of unrelated men, of course.

And yet today, I sat and waited for Khadija, my stylist, while several women finished their hair cuts, tied hijabs back on, and left. Huh?!

While I don’t have an explanation for this, my mother in law related a story involving Rachid - when she went to the salon last, she was asked by her stylist why she hadn’t been in so long. Eager to make an excuse, she pointed to Rachid and said “You hired a man! I can’t take my hijab off in front of a man!” Apparently the stylist responded, “Oh, no - Rachid isn’t really a man.”

In all seriousness though, what impressed me the most was that neither Rachid nor his gayness seemed to bother this predominantly hijabi clientele. I’m not exactly sure why - perhaps they really do consider him outside of the realm the way relatives and children are - but who knows?