Okay, so today I got my hair cut. Again. See?
I tried taking a picture of the back too, but, y’know, my arms don’t go that way. It’ll take a bit of work to style, but since there’s a person I like who I want to notice me more, well… 気合入ってる. I will do it.
Anyway, just because I think some people will find it interesting, and I really have nothing better to write about on here (unless you’d all like me to rant about Johnny’s Entertainment and take pictures of all the stuff I’ve bought?) so… Yeah. About Japanese hair salon places.
To start with, since it just makes it more amazing, is the fact that the place I go is freakishly cheep compared to most places here. Today it was 2205 yen (at the current exchange rate, $23.50) for a shampoo/condition, cut and style, the most simple thing they have, while most places run around 4000~5000 yen ($42.80~53.50) for the same, not to mention the fact that most Japanese girls/women end up getting a perm or a color. Around 8000 yen? ($85.60) That’s why most people get their hair cut once professionally and cut it themselves when it needs a trim.
They start with the shampoo/condition. And, although some foreigners (Victoria?) find it annoying, they make sure to ask you if everything feels alright, is the towel around your neck too tight?, is the water too hot?, too cold?, does anything itch? (x13). Not only that, but it feels like a freaking head massage. Not to mention they cover your face with a small towel-thing so that nothing gets splashed on you (Fantastic Sams… Ehem.)
When they go to first towel dry your hair they even make sure there’s no water in your ears (feels like an ear massage…) and then lightly towel dry it instead of the pull-tug-squeeze motion I’ve experienced at a lot of American places.
Then whoever did your shampoo/condition leads you to whatever chair you happen to have and provides you with whatever hair magazine you happened to be looking at before you were called over (made me sort of paranoid that they’d been watching me the first time, but meh. Doesn’t matter). Then they give you time to look.
Different person comes over who’s going to do your hair (I got the same lady as the last time I came today, so we talked about Johnny’s. I less-than-three (<3 See? It’s a heart.) her.) and politely asks you if you’ve found one you’d like or what you’d like. You can explain, and they actually give you suggestions on how to make it better for your face shape, hair type, hair thickness, etc. Talk about that for a bit, and then they’re cutting (after drying your hair with a blow drier, of course).
Although they normally ask constantly through the cut if everything looks okay, I couldn’t really see the details without my glasses (darn eyes) so she just asked to make sure the length was good. Unlike most of the American places I’ve been, there was no pulling/tugging that hurt, nothing fell in my eyes, and I actually got good conversation (okay, that depends on the cutter. I thankfully got the lady who did me last time who likes Arashi Arashi Arashi. I totally did not just link you to three different songs (Happiness, truth, and Beautiful Days) to try and make somebody an Arashi fan. They’re all so different, can you believe it’s the same band?)
And both times she’s actually done good on the cut even though my hair is most likely the exact opposite of what they’re used to working with (flexible, thin strands, lots of hair, lots of curl as compared to stiff, thick strands, thin hair, almost pin straight of the normal Japanese person.) How many times have I been satisfied with a haircut in America…? I don’t know, but very few. Japan so far is 2/2. 100%.
Um… No real ending. Gah.
If anybody has a specific thing they’d like to hear about, leave an idea in the comments?
Kansan To Japan 