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Published: October 28th 2010
Charcoal Grill Fish
Another dinner at our favorite restaurant, this time Johnny invited us to dinner along with Langley & Keny.Up until now I have been an innocent bystander in this blog - throwing in my random tidbits for Joni to add. I’ve actually quite enjoyed reading her posts and have been amused reliving some of our initial experiences. Anyways, Joni has asked me to be a guest blogger. I’m not sure if this is because she truly wants me to be a part of this or because she just wants some free material, but regardless, I jumped at the opportunity.
The title of this blog might make you want to move right on to Joni’s next posting…after all, how exciting can a trip to the barber be? If living in China for this brief period has taught me anything - it’s that even day-to-day life is an adventure. Whether it’s crossing the street in a game of life or death Frogger with mopeds, buses, and taxis or trying to figure out if a packaged supermarket item is tofu or chicken feet - there is never a dull moment. My experience with a Chinese haircut certainly fell into this category.
My initial plan was to drag our friend Langley from the office with us. He has been a life
Kongjiang Lu
The trees are lit up every night on the street outside our apartment complex. saver in helping with our transition and offered to take me after work one day to a local barber and explain to stylist how I wanted my haircut. That was the plan and would have probably been the easier option, but we had a rainy Sunday and were itching to get out of the house.
We planned to walk to the bookstore about a mile from our apt and see if we saw a salon along the way. We were in need of a good Shanghai map since we had been using an old map I had from my visit in 2007. However, in China that is equivalent to using a 30 year old map in the US. Since I was here on my last trip, 7 new subway lines have been added (of 12 total) and a ridiculous amount of new streets and skyscrapers have filled the landscape. China is changing so fast I imagine this map will be out of date before we leave. Anyways, I digress - Langley had sent us the address of the bookstore so we packed up our umbrellas and headed out the door. We made our way to 20 Anshan Lu and
sure enough….there was a high end hair salon..??. Not quite what we expected. We took a pass down the street and quickly realized the bookstore was above the salon. We ran up and grabbed our map without ordeal and came back down. Since we were already there - I figured what the heck. This is something I should experience.
So we headed back to the salon entrance and were greeted by two young ladies wearing nice business jackets. From the front window - it looked like a very high end salon with a huge glass storefront, Jay-Z’s “New York” bumping inside, marble tile floor, and ‘Amani’ written in modern print. If I saw a place like this in the US - I would run straight for the door in fear of a $200 haircut and the stigma of my guy friends questioning my manhood. However, when in China - my priorities have changed. Namely - If I’m going somewhere where people are going to be dragging sharp objects across my skin and continually touching me - I want it to be clean(er) I had seen haircut ‘businesses’ here which were more or less a guy with a scissors, a
razor, and a bucket on the sidewalk. While I’m sure this is safe - there is something about the whole situation that gives you a bad feeling in your stomach. I decided that this was one area that I was not going to cut corners.
As we stepped into the salon we saw the long gauntlet of chairs, mirrors and stylist running left and right wearing all black. We were told the price was 38 yuan (about $5) and they directed me to a chair near the front wear we were both served green tea. Joni took up a seat in the reception area for the show. To start a young lady came out and gave me a ‘menu’ written in all Chinese. The only thing I could read was that it had the letters “VIP” on the top. I quickly pulled out my Chinese Dictionary, flipped it open to the Barber section and pointed at the phrase - “I want a haircut”. The lady responded with a nod and an “Ohhhh” and walked away. What the heck else would I be here for? I sat thinking to myself… I am in a hair salon… right?
Let me
View from our office building
...from the janitor's room near the women's bathroom precursor this by saying that I had done my research and read about Chinese haircuts prior to this so I ‘half’ knew what to expect. However, reading and experiencing are two totally different things and nothing ever goes as expected. The young lady returned and started pumping her hands full of shampoo. She put it directly into my dry hair which I thought was a little odd and started giving me a scalp massage. For the next 15-20 minutes I got a scalp/neck massage which was nice but very rough at times. It was amazing that such a small Chinese lady could have such scull crushing hand strength. I kept my pride in tact and toughed it out... after all... how would it look if the 6’-5” huge American couldn’t handle a ‘massage’ from a 5’ tall 100 lb Chinese girl!?!? One of the oddest parts of the shampooing is what by American standards could only be considered a “wet willy”. For any of you not familiar, this involves sticking a wet finger in someone’s ear and twisting. Now imagine the wet is actually shampoo….
Afterwards she motioned for me to follow her to the back of the salon
where there was a separate room for rinsing. After rinsing my hair she again followed with another neck and scalp massage. This whole process was rather uneventful with the exception of one thing. After the massage she turned back on the water and starting saying something to me in Chinese. After she got no response, she continued to say the word over and over… each time getting louder. This has been one thing that has amazed me about the language barrier. Even when you’ve made it clear you cannot understand a dang word - people will continue to speak Mandarin words to you.. louder and louder. Possibly thinking they are going to scare the mandarin native tongue back into you. Regardless, I finally understood when I closed my eyes and was blasted with a face full of water. This caught me a little off guard and continued for a solid minute. Imagine lying on your back and have someone turn the shower head on full 4 inches above your face. Thankfully it was just the upper half my face and I was able to breathe during the whole ordeal. After this followed a very painful ‘eye socket’ massage and then
Montreal-Shanghai Conference
Blair went to an urban planning themed conference to celebrate 25 years of the cities of Montreal & Shanghai working together. Since the company has offices in both Shanghai & Montreal, several employees attended. A portion of it was held at this park. I was brought back to my seat in the other room.
When I returned to my seat the lady pulled out some Q-tips and began what can only be described as a painful ear gouging. Clearly this lady did not get the same speech I did from my mother about sticking things in our ears. This was the only part of the whole process that I thoroughly hated and as I’m typing this - my ears are still store. I’m still trying to figure out how every Chinese person walking around isn’t deaf if that’s the type of hygiene they practice. After this painful process - she starting giving me a shoulder to finger massage on both arms. It was very odd and I’m sure she could tell from the tightness in my arm muscles that the whole experience was a little awkward for me. Thankfully I had the pleasure of Joni sitting directly behind me so I could look up in the mirror and catch her quirky smiles as she watched the entire process unfold.
Finally the lady left and returned with a very short young Chinese guy with an interesting haircut… (shaved on the sides and
Montreal-Shanghai Conference
The park had several of these huge conservatories which each contained different climates. longer on the top) He motioned scissors with his fingers … finally time for what I came here for! As I followed him to the back of the salon to the ‘cutting’ area - I realized all of the stylist were men. As I looked around and saw bleach blonde hair and a mohawk on other stylist , I felt lucky to have the guy I did. I pulled out my phrase book and showed him “I only want a trim please” and he nodded. The whole process of the actual haircut was rather uneventful and the most relaxing part of the whole experience as I wasn’t worried about the next part of head or face that was going to get poked or squeezed. I sat back and listened as a 5 song mixtape of Jay Z and Michael Jackson played over and over on the surround sound.
After nearly 40 minutes of getting my haircut - I got the nod that everything was perfect and followed the stylist to the front of the Salon. I paid my 38 yuan being satisfied with my haircut - still surprised that all the extras I had received were just a part
of getting a simple haircut. The whole process took over an hour and a half and cost me $5. You really can’t be that.
As I left to leave the salon - I caught the stylist out of the corner of my eye sneak up behind me and jump as high as he could and laugh. Clearly I was one of the biggest people’s hair he had ever cut…
Just another adventure in our daily life in China…
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Megan
non-member comment
Hilarious!
I hope you guys keep up the blog! This is great!