Haircut

I’ve never before had a haircut in a foreign country, though I’ve for several years thought it would be something I’d like to try. I almost did it in Italy two years ago, but time did not permit. This afternoon I got my $5 Chinese haircut, and I quite like it. It’s about chin length, just long enough that I can still put it up.

Xueqin has been saying for a while that she wants to “li ge fa” (trim a hair, an expression that is somewhat abbreviated and for some reason sounds funny to us), so I went with her to one of several salons near school. I had perhaps the longest hair wash of my life, using very little water (actually there was no sink, just a very lathery liquid poured on my head and worked through my hair), which was fabulous, and then rinsed sat down for my cut. At this point I should mention that I actually generally feel very uncomfortable talking to the people who cut my hair. I think it has something to do with the fact that the cape and wet hair make my neck and face look kind of fat, and I am forced to sit and make eye contact with myself, scrutinize every detail of my face, and simultaneously make small talk so someone who’s tugging away at my head. It’s harder when there’s a language gap.

When the stylist commented about my hair color, I mentioned that my sister has red hair. This news always seems to startle Chinese people. They of course understand genetics and that sort of thing, and if you shrug and say “it’s genetic” they concede that it makes sense, but these are people who are used to everyone having black hair, so the thought that within a single family there could exist several hair colors is a bit baffling. We hit on other various uncomfortable subjects like how much a hair cut costs in America, and how long I’ve been in China. This is an uncomfortable question for me, because due to the lack of verb tenses, continuing actions are a bit difficult, and I have trouble figuring out whether someone wants to know how long I’ve been in China or how long I plan to be in China. I generally answer both questions and hope they’re satisfied. So anyway my hair is now blow-dried and therefore the prettiest it’s been since I got here, and on one of the most humid days. Bad timing, I know.