Many people who have lived abroad would agree that getting one’s hair cut is a bother. My experience in Asia has been mixed. White people’s hair is finer than Asian hair, and many barbers and stylists in China don’t have experience dealing with it.
On the recommendation of a couple of coworkers, I went to this place today. It’s near the Consulate, so I went right after work. This is what it looks like:
The last time I got a hair cut in East Lansing, I took pictures. I showed the stylist the pictures, and told her that I wanted it done like that.
The stylist was a very young lady. She looked like she could be in junior high school. She was a little hesitant to engage me in conversation, I think she wasn’t sure that I spoke Chinese, even after I purposely talked to her a lot, and tried cracking jokes. Maybe she was intimidated by a handsome egotistical foreigner, maybe she was trying not to laugh at a strange middle-aged foreign man.
She seemed to know what she was doing with the scissors, though, and she cut my hair with confidence, all the while keeping up a running conversation with the lady customer in the chair next to mine in rapid-fire local dialect, which I understand about 15% of.
This is what I wound up with. Not 100% like the pictures from East Lansing, but at least I don’t look ridiculous. For a bald man, “not ridiculous” is a pretty good haircut result.
Total cost: ¥15, about US$2.50. Win.
My handsome man!
Gerardo definitely will not want to work there.
Looks fine!