Hair-Raising Experiences

I must admit that when I lived in the US, I always hated going to the hairdresser's. I think I have an inferiority complex when faced with the typical beauty salon. I know in advance that they won't like me. Not because I'm mean or anything. Not even because I'm not, well, not beautiful. No, it's because I don't spend enough money. I'm just a girl who always says `No'. "Would you like our super special ultra-shine conditioner?" "No." "Would you like mousse/styling gel/hairspray/glitter?" To all of these I say no. Nor will I be persuaded to add highlights or curls to my hair and only shake my head when someone suggests that what was once mousey will soon be (heaven forbid) grey and that color is the answer! I must be a hairdresser's worst nightmare. I know that they are mine. I only visit once every three months instead of the minimum of three weeks and the far preferred weekly visit. No, the only thing I tolerate is a wash, a cut, and a blow-dry.

But now everything's changed. I dream about going to have my hair done. I have been to the hairdresser at least five times in five months. Have I undergone a personality change, you ask. No, I have moved from the US to China. If you have never had your hair washed by a Chinese or Vietnamese hairdresser, you have missed a rare treat. Of course, we women all know that going to the hairdresser should be a treat. There is something so soothing, so tranquilizing about having somebody else wash, cut, comb, and dry the hair. But why should having it done in China or Vietnam be so much better?

First, even though not better, you would certainly find it different. For starters your hair is shampooed sitting up rather than reclining with your neck wedged against a piece of porcelain and your head in a bowl. Rather than just applying shampoo and rubbing it in a little before rinsing, the application of the shampoo becomes an all-head massage. The shampoo is applied and water sparingly added from a squeeze bottle and the mixture is worked until a rich lather develops. Periodically excess lather is removed and discarded. Throughout, deft fingers kneed and probe every square inch of the skull. Then, just when you think they must be done, the kneading, probing fingers work their way down to your neck, then the shoulders, and, if you are lucky, to your back.

At some point, you do have to recline into that bowl to have your hair rinsed, of course, but I have found no pattern as to when it happens. Sometimes it is immediately after the shampoo and head massage, sometimes it is at the very end of the entire massage, just before the haircut. It may just be a question of regional variation as with the scope of the massage. In Beijing, I was only given a head, neck, and shoulder massage whereas in Shenzhen (just across the border from Hong Kong) two different hairdressers also gave me a back massage, one inviting me to lean on the glass table below the mirror for greater comfort. One Shenzhen hairdresser, also massaged the arms, hands and fingers for good measure.

In Vietnam, my one excursion to the hairdresser was similar and yet quite different. The hair was cut before the shampoo, with a spray bottle to moisten the hair as needed. I remained sitting in the chair for the shampoo which indeed included a head massage. Instead of following on with a neck and shoulder massage, however, I was next asked to lie down on a reclining chair to have my hair rinsed. The hairdresser carefully covered my face with a damp towel and then poured a jug of cold water over my head that she filled from a bucket! I had not noticed the lack of plumbing and had no warning of the cold shower to come. I gasped in shock. The hairdresser just chuckled and doused me again. Each time I gasped, she chuckled, but in the end she made up for it by giving me a wonderful face massage. She was delightful and delighted, I think, to have this foreigner in her small shop. For the first time ever, I bargained over the price of a haircut, but not very hard.

Which is of course the other reason why trips to the hairdresser in these parts of Asia are memorable. Such royal treatment costs only a tenth or less of what you would pay in the west, or even in HK. In Beijing I paid US$9 in a large new shopping mall not far from the center. In Shenzhen in South China I paid US$4 - $4.50, and $5 in Vietnam. When I asked some friends in Hong Kong what they pay, the answers ranged from $30 to $100. [Postscript December 2002: prices in Washington D.C. vary from $45 to $60.]

It's already more than a week since I last had a haircut. I wonder if I can bear to wait two more weeks for my next one?