Haircuts in Asia

Getting a good haircut is an art. Getting a good haircut in Asia is a miracle. You have two choices - go to a ridiculously expensive foreign place (where your chances of getting a good haircut are better, but your chances of regretting dropping that much for a bad haircut are significantly higher too). Or you can brave going to someone local and trying to explain what you want. Me, I go local.

I try to go armed with some pictures to give them an idea of what I want. I have picked up some vocabulary that includes "length, cut, trim, color" but should really expand to include, "layers, bangs, blunt, thinning shears (as in, "Don't use them")." I have a hard time explaining what I want in my own language. Add to that the fact that I have the hairline of Dracula (seriously, I'll show you sometime) which messes up any normal haircut, and you've got a recipe for tears and months of ponytails.

And yet, I still try.

I went the other day and explained with pictures that I wanted her to cut bangs, and leave the length but give me more layers. Essentially she did that, though in retrospect I realize I should have been more specific. This is when I am glad I am not a Barbie doll - my hair will grow back. It always takes a few days for my hair to process, "What on earth did you let her do to me? Now how am I supposed to look? What was wrong with me before?" and then it reluctantly settles into something new.

The interesting thing this time is that it finally cut off all previously dyed hair. I now, for the first time in about 2 decades, have all my own hair color (including my first few gray hairs - what??). When I came home, Megan said, "I don't like how dark they made it." I had to inform her that was the part which actually went right. I was hoping it would finally be my own again. Who knew I was this much of a brunette?

Haircuts in Asia. Not for the faint of heart.