Sunday, 27 June 2010
Never a Dull Experience
I recently got my hair did. Yes, hair did. That’s a 30 Rock lingo for all of you unacquainted with one of the best comedy shows around.
It has been a (long) while since I got my hair did. Well, if you have been following (read: stalking) my blog diligently enough (because some stalkers are just so lazy...) , the last time I got it done (the novelty of saying hair did has worn off.) was around the beginning of February, and now it’s already the end of June. That’s 5 months of unkempt hair growth to deal with which is how the poor students do it!
Due to the sneaking suspicion that a quarter-life crisis is looming in my near future, I decided to colour my hair RED to pre-empt that during my research for my hair cut. Yes, I do do (doodoo!!) a little digging around before each of my visits to the hairdresser, but it usually turns out to be an exercise in futility as the research tends to be unused, or miscommunicated between me and whoever’s taking shots at my head with various sharp objects.
Also decided around the same time, I chose not to go to an Asian hair saloon this time as quite frankly, I got a little sick of their lack of comprehension of the English language in an English-speaking country no less. But I guess it’s more surprising (I spelt that as SUPrising the first time and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it! LOL, kettle!) that I am still annoyed by that fact considering this is already my second year here (and who I live with). However, with a western hair saloon, price became another important factor to consider as they tend to be more expensive than their asian counterparts. That’s how I decided to try out a local hairdresser where the price for a cut and colour was very reasonable. By comparison, for the same price, I might not even have gotten a full haircut at some of the other places.
So, off I went to Grandma’s house with my red cape enveloping the petite body that is mine, tra la la la....
Wait, what? No! What I was trying to say before Perrault’s (or rather the Grimms’ by the sound of it) ghost possessed my hand is that I went to the hair salon near my place, up a hill no less, on a sunny weekday morning to get my hair did (and the novelty continues!). To preserve anonymity, although I have no idea what for, let’s just call the place Nana’s hair saloon. (I swear it just happened by accident! I did not plan it.) Upon my first step past the threshold, the first thing that was impressed on me was their clientele. It comprised entirely of female senior citizen, or at least that was what it looked like at that time. Actually, what was I expecting? It was a weekday morning. Anyways, midway through my hair did-ing, a 20-something guy walked in to get his hair cut so at least I knew I wasn’t the odd one, or special. Sad face...
However, once I got past the wrinkled skins, greying hairs and bad perms (which probably doesn’t bode well with my chances of a good hair did), I discovered, as would anyone, that here does not sit a group of ladies who have nothing else to talk about besides their grandchildren, gossips and knitting. No, in fact, some of these ladies are more up-to-date with the current affairs of the world than a lot of us, myself included. From the more traditional sharing of recipes to the less expected discussion on the consequences of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, to the even more amazing up-to-the-minute update on the ousting of the current prime minister of Australia, these ladies seem to have no bound on their interests and knowledge, which gives, at least for this one writer, a glimpse into the charms of a traditional dinner party with good food, tasteful decor and intelligent yet light discussions.
Enough with the societal observations for now, I would like to bring the spotlight back on my favourite subject : ME!
After a relatively short wait (roughly 10 minutes), I got attached to a young red-head hairdresser named Gaby. Looking back, or, for you readers, reading up, or down, I should have just told her that I wanted her hair colour but darker. But you live and learn...
Before I get too ahead of myself, let's start off with the hair cut first. My instructions for the hair cut, since she was so unwilling to give an opinion when I asked, were as follows. Keep the fringe, just shorten the length to above my eyebrows, and shorten the rest while making sure it does not look odd with my already odd head shape. I have to say, it was nice of her to ask how short I wanted it in comparison with some of my prior experiences. (Needless to say, although I am saying it, those did not turn out too well.) She even showed me how much she was going to take off before going all trigger happy with the scissors. Wait, how does that work? Scissors with a trigger? Argh, oh well...
The cut came out quite well. In terms of scoring, I would give it a 6 or 7 out of 10. The overall shape was good and the layering was done satisfactorily. Due to it's shorter length and softer,smoother texture, it's much nicer to run my hand through it. It feels so much like a dog. Woof!
Closer inspection, however, reveals some shortcomings. The sideburns were cut off horizontally instead of at an angle, leaving it looking rather unnatural. The top and fringe was cut to equal lengths making it look like a rising sun and bowl respectively if unstyled. Again, my amount of hair that I lost from the cut was massive. At least I won’t go bald, according to her. I swear by the time she was done cutting, I was feeling rather light-headed. I would have thought my head had been dislocated and hovering just above my neck if I wasn’t looking at the mirror all the time.
For the hair colour, I remembered distinctly saying ”A dark brown with a hint of red but not so light that it would look unnatural when the roots begin to grow back” when she asked. Sometimes, just pointing and nodding is a much better option than being too wordy. She seemed to comprehend what I said at that time and even consulted with the senior colourist there about it much to the effect that I fear is too similar to those game shows where you are meant to convey a message whispered to you along a line of people to see how twisted it has become at the end. After deciding on a hair dye to used, (which went by colour coding than actual names, so I had no idea what they used. The only thing I understood was 12%, which I am guessing is the bleach/hydrogen peroxide content percentage in the hair dye.) she applied the hair dye which was white in colour so no helpful indicator there and left me there to wonder and ponder for 15 minutes at first, which turned into a 45-55 minutes wait. I did notice a little colour change in my hair (Curse my short-sightedness) but it was, to my vision, more blonde than brown so I thought it was just the bleach being applied first and the colour to go on later. Boy, was I wrong...
After the almost hour long wait in which I try to take my mind off the colour that my hair is turning to (and the bleach gnawing away my scalp), it finally came time to wash off the dye that has been working it’s chemical magic on my hair and scalp.
The result turned out to be a light blonde/brown/brass with was rather popular with Asian celebrities circa 2003/4. Besides being outdated, it was quite nice, but definitely was not what i wanted or am prepared to have. Besides, how obvious would this colour look when my roots begin to grow out... Luckily she asked whether it was right, and I told her it was a little too light so she reapplied a different, darker dye for another 15-20 minutes and turned out a nice dark brown colour which I rather pleased with, or probably that’s just all the hair dye soaked into my brain that it’s interfering with my better judgment.
Writing this after 4 days with it, I think I can say with certainty, I like it. It looks like a nice classy dark brown which could pass off as my natural hair colour if it weren’t for my jet black eyebrows. Otherwise, I am deeply worried about the whole population who get their hair dyed. Anyways, at least I got half of what I asked for and being the extremely nice (or pushover) person that I am, I did not pester her about the red (which are notorious for fading anyways). For the price I paid, I would say it was quite a good deal and I wouldn’t mind going back there again especially for a colour.
And that concludes my hair did-ing experience. (Didn’t think I could still squeeze one in, did you?)
p.s. : I do apologise if the last third of it did not quite ‘bite’, but I was rushing to finish this before I head off to bed (long day tomorrow) and seeing as how I wrote roughly 1500 words already, I think that’s enough for now. Look out for editing, improvement or pictures (in descending order of likeliness).
It has been a (long) while since I got my hair did. Well, if you have been following (read: stalking) my blog diligently enough (because some stalkers are just so lazy...) , the last time I got it done (the novelty of saying hair did has worn off.) was around the beginning of February, and now it’s already the end of June. That’s 5 months of unkempt hair growth to deal with which is how the poor students do it!
Due to the sneaking suspicion that a quarter-life crisis is looming in my near future, I decided to colour my hair RED to pre-empt that during my research for my hair cut. Yes, I do do (doodoo!!) a little digging around before each of my visits to the hairdresser, but it usually turns out to be an exercise in futility as the research tends to be unused, or miscommunicated between me and whoever’s taking shots at my head with various sharp objects.
Also decided around the same time, I chose not to go to an Asian hair saloon this time as quite frankly, I got a little sick of their lack of comprehension of the English language in an English-speaking country no less. But I guess it’s more surprising (I spelt that as SUPrising the first time and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it! LOL, kettle!) that I am still annoyed by that fact considering this is already my second year here (and who I live with). However, with a western hair saloon, price became another important factor to consider as they tend to be more expensive than their asian counterparts. That’s how I decided to try out a local hairdresser where the price for a cut and colour was very reasonable. By comparison, for the same price, I might not even have gotten a full haircut at some of the other places.
So, off I went to Grandma’s house with my red cape enveloping the petite body that is mine, tra la la la....
Wait, what? No! What I was trying to say before Perrault’s (or rather the Grimms’ by the sound of it) ghost possessed my hand is that I went to the hair salon near my place, up a hill no less, on a sunny weekday morning to get my hair did (and the novelty continues!). To preserve anonymity, although I have no idea what for, let’s just call the place Nana’s hair saloon. (I swear it just happened by accident! I did not plan it.) Upon my first step past the threshold, the first thing that was impressed on me was their clientele. It comprised entirely of female senior citizen, or at least that was what it looked like at that time. Actually, what was I expecting? It was a weekday morning. Anyways, midway through my hair did-ing, a 20-something guy walked in to get his hair cut so at least I knew I wasn’t the odd one, or special. Sad face...
However, once I got past the wrinkled skins, greying hairs and bad perms (which probably doesn’t bode well with my chances of a good hair did), I discovered, as would anyone, that here does not sit a group of ladies who have nothing else to talk about besides their grandchildren, gossips and knitting. No, in fact, some of these ladies are more up-to-date with the current affairs of the world than a lot of us, myself included. From the more traditional sharing of recipes to the less expected discussion on the consequences of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, to the even more amazing up-to-the-minute update on the ousting of the current prime minister of Australia, these ladies seem to have no bound on their interests and knowledge, which gives, at least for this one writer, a glimpse into the charms of a traditional dinner party with good food, tasteful decor and intelligent yet light discussions.
Enough with the societal observations for now, I would like to bring the spotlight back on my favourite subject : ME!
After a relatively short wait (roughly 10 minutes), I got attached to a young red-head hairdresser named Gaby. Looking back, or, for you readers, reading up, or down, I should have just told her that I wanted her hair colour but darker. But you live and learn...
Before I get too ahead of myself, let's start off with the hair cut first. My instructions for the hair cut, since she was so unwilling to give an opinion when I asked, were as follows. Keep the fringe, just shorten the length to above my eyebrows, and shorten the rest while making sure it does not look odd with my already odd head shape. I have to say, it was nice of her to ask how short I wanted it in comparison with some of my prior experiences. (Needless to say, although I am saying it, those did not turn out too well.) She even showed me how much she was going to take off before going all trigger happy with the scissors. Wait, how does that work? Scissors with a trigger? Argh, oh well...
The cut came out quite well. In terms of scoring, I would give it a 6 or 7 out of 10. The overall shape was good and the layering was done satisfactorily. Due to it's shorter length and softer,smoother texture, it's much nicer to run my hand through it. It feels so much like a dog. Woof!
Closer inspection, however, reveals some shortcomings. The sideburns were cut off horizontally instead of at an angle, leaving it looking rather unnatural. The top and fringe was cut to equal lengths making it look like a rising sun and bowl respectively if unstyled. Again, my amount of hair that I lost from the cut was massive. At least I won’t go bald, according to her. I swear by the time she was done cutting, I was feeling rather light-headed. I would have thought my head had been dislocated and hovering just above my neck if I wasn’t looking at the mirror all the time.
For the hair colour, I remembered distinctly saying ”A dark brown with a hint of red but not so light that it would look unnatural when the roots begin to grow back” when she asked. Sometimes, just pointing and nodding is a much better option than being too wordy. She seemed to comprehend what I said at that time and even consulted with the senior colourist there about it much to the effect that I fear is too similar to those game shows where you are meant to convey a message whispered to you along a line of people to see how twisted it has become at the end. After deciding on a hair dye to used, (which went by colour coding than actual names, so I had no idea what they used. The only thing I understood was 12%, which I am guessing is the bleach/hydrogen peroxide content percentage in the hair dye.) she applied the hair dye which was white in colour so no helpful indicator there and left me there to wonder and ponder for 15 minutes at first, which turned into a 45-55 minutes wait. I did notice a little colour change in my hair (Curse my short-sightedness) but it was, to my vision, more blonde than brown so I thought it was just the bleach being applied first and the colour to go on later. Boy, was I wrong...
After the almost hour long wait in which I try to take my mind off the colour that my hair is turning to (and the bleach gnawing away my scalp), it finally came time to wash off the dye that has been working it’s chemical magic on my hair and scalp.
The result turned out to be a light blonde/brown/brass with was rather popular with Asian celebrities circa 2003/4. Besides being outdated, it was quite nice, but definitely was not what i wanted or am prepared to have. Besides, how obvious would this colour look when my roots begin to grow out... Luckily she asked whether it was right, and I told her it was a little too light so she reapplied a different, darker dye for another 15-20 minutes and turned out a nice dark brown colour which I rather pleased with, or probably that’s just all the hair dye soaked into my brain that it’s interfering with my better judgment.
Writing this after 4 days with it, I think I can say with certainty, I like it. It looks like a nice classy dark brown which could pass off as my natural hair colour if it weren’t for my jet black eyebrows. Otherwise, I am deeply worried about the whole population who get their hair dyed. Anyways, at least I got half of what I asked for and being the extremely nice (or pushover) person that I am, I did not pester her about the red (which are notorious for fading anyways). For the price I paid, I would say it was quite a good deal and I wouldn’t mind going back there again especially for a colour.
And that concludes my hair did-ing experience. (Didn’t think I could still squeeze one in, did you?)
Good Night!
p.s. : I do apologise if the last third of it did not quite ‘bite’, but I was rushing to finish this before I head off to bed (long day tomorrow) and seeing as how I wrote roughly 1500 words already, I think that’s enough for now. Look out for editing, improvement or pictures (in descending order of likeliness).
Monkey J
20:04
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