Now one often wonders what to do in Saigon between meals when you’re not actually eating your way around town. 
One of my favorite activities between Saigon eating adventures is to get brain surgery. What!? Well actually, it’s not really brain surgery. It just kind of feels like it is. Actually, it’s called “hớt tóc”. Better know to foreigners in Saigon as “a haircut.”
Why not get a haircut in Saigon!
Please, let me explain. So, when one goes for a haircut in Saigon, at least in “real” Saigon (away from the tourist center), you will of course, get your haircut. That’s standard. You also can count on being offered a shave, a head massage, and a shampoo, or any combination thereof. I suggest you select all. They’re typically quite wonderful and very inexpensive. I mean where else in the world can you get a haircut for $2 usd (40,000 vnd), and a combo of all the above for $3.50 usd (75,000 vnd)? (I’m recalling my Berkeley $20 haircuts and San Francisco $50 hair stylings!) But, I digress. I was talking about brain-surgery.
Hai, ready for his surgery!
So, along with that great haircut, massage, shampoo, etc., you’ll very likely be offered a ráy tai. That’s the brain surgery part … sorry, it just looks and feels like brain surgery. What it really is – is a deep ear cleaning. Emphasis on deep! Let’s get that wax out … every last bit of it!
OK, “we’re going in”!
Tools of the trade
Deep with a vast assortment of razor-sharp surgical scalpels, stainless probes, metal scrapers, and fuzzy ball sticks inserted into the outer ear, down the ear canal, and deep into the inner recesses of your cranium. 
I clear recall my first ráy tai experience over a decade ago when I foolishly sought an inexpensive haircut somewhere far into Saigon’s local neighborhood streets. I didn’t know what was happening! I feared for my life. I couldn’t speak a word of Vietnamese at the time. And of course, I couldn’t run or even budge with that scalpel buried deep somewhere inside my cranium. But, it turned out to be an amazing cultural and physical experience.
Now, I ALWAYS get ráy tai. In fact, I insist on it. If they don’t offer it, I get my haircut elsewhere. Why?, you might ask. Now, this is where it gets awkward. In fact, my ears are not particularly dirty or wax-prone. They likely don’t need to be cleaned so often.
Anatomy of the ear (as seen by your local Vietnamese barber)
BUT, previously unbeknownst to me before my first Saigon haircut, it seems that there is a very sensitive nerve buried deep inside the ear canal. And apparently, that nerve is somehow linked from the ear canal directly to the erogenous headquarters of the brain. So, when your ráy tai takes place and the deep recesses of the ear canal are probed and stimulated with the cleaning utensils, especially the rapidly-spinning, fuzzy ball-tipped, heat-generating probe …
Not your usual haircut!
Well, let’s just leave it at that. Eating Saigon! wishes to keep it’s “PG” rating. But rest assured, I’m often disappointed when my ráy tai is finished “so soon”.
DISCLAIMER: Of course, my lawyers, civic responsibility, and common sense must all emphasize that this traditional Vietnamese ear-cleaning service is not wise nor recommended. I mean the IAPTEC (International Association for the Protection of Tourists’ Ear Canals) certainly finds the practice abhorrent and views even a soft and cuddly Q-tip as a significant threat to ear safety.
So please act accordingly. 
And enjoy your Saigon haircut! 🙂
WOW! …. Ouch!