Saturday, January 24, 2009

Encounter with a Chinese hairstylist

Today I went to a hair salon in Batu Pahat. All the hairstylist were Chinese guys. The boss was over 40 and fluent in English. Since I haven't cut my hair for 2 months, it grew a bit too long. So I told them, I want my hair about 2cm long or about 2 fingers long. I said it in English and the guy nodded. To be sure, I asked my girlfriend to tell him in Chinese, he listened and nodded as well.

The guy looked like a korean boy band singer, totally metro, the front part of his hair covered his left eye. When he began to cut, I already had a bad feeling. They way he cut my hair, I've never seen something like that! He put a pin in my hair and cut underneath, like 20 times. My inner self already shook his head... But I kept smiling and hoped that he will finally cut my hair 2/3rds shorter. But I was wrong. He cut such tiny portions of my hair, so I asked my friend, please tell him in Chinese that I want my hair much shorter. She told him and he replied: Don't worry, it will be much shorter. Well... He cut about 30min already, I boiled inside... But... he just didn't cut as short as I want. So after 30min cutting off snippets of my hair, I decided to smile and say: It's ok. While I thought that's it, he put some gel on top, which is fine to me. But to my big surprise, he made me a fauxhawk! I was like WTF? But as pissed I was, I just smiled and said: Nice! I had a feeling he will put a cherry on top of the cake.

Well, one more thing happened. As I was paying, the boss told my girlfriend in Chinese, that unlike other Western people, whom he cut the hair, my hair was very clean. How judgmental and prejudiced! It supposed to be a compliment, or what? It sounded racist to me. What if I replied to him: Your hair salon is surprisingly fragrant and all of your hairstylists are clean as well unlike other Chinese. Would that be a compliment? I'm sure it wouldn't be.

So, as soon as I came out of this horrible place, I flattened my fauxhawk and said to my girlfriend: This was crazy! Now I have to go elsewhere and fix my hair again.

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