Getting a Hair Cut in China

Getting my hair cut has always been nerve-wracking at the best of times. When I was younger we cut it straight across and couldn't figure out why I looked like a walking, bushy, triangle. Turns out my hair is dry-ish, curly/wavy, and thick and MUST be cut in long layers. After a number of bad haircuts I have learned a few things that are *key* to a good hair cut. The one thing I must have? A stylist who is experienced with curly hair.

Except, about 1 month ago I needed a hair cut. And, I live in China. There is NO curly hair here. When we were all teaching our kids the target language "curly" hair and "straight" hair, I had to run around to everyone's classroom and show everyone's students what curly hair was. It was hilarious.

Until, of course, I'm sitting in a very nice salon, with a very nice stylist who knows 2-3 useful English words and has just cut my hair straight across the bottom, despite my showing a few pictures of myself with layered curly hair. He seemed extremely confused as he was trying to tame the frizzy mess and style it. Why wouldn't it calm down? For my part, I was almost in tears which distressed the poor guy even more.

Eventually we straightened it out after a lot of sign language and zooming in on a few pictures I needed layers and shaping. The layers had to be long. Once we got over that hurdle, I was extremely pleased with the outcome. Before he dried and styled my hair, I could tell it was a good cut. This stylist knew exactly what he was doing, he just wasn't super familiar with non-Asian hair textures and misunderstood what I wanted at the beginning.

This is the final result:

It looks very good when I style it curly as well, I just have not had the chance to grab a picture of it that way.

Life is definitely an adventure over here.