Don's Haircuts

When we were in Canada and even in Mexico, it was easier to shave Don's hair ourselves. Since arriving in China, we just haven't seen a hair trimmer so he decided that he would try getting his haircut.

He has had two haircuts so far. The first one was out of desperation. One day, he just had to get his haircut and so we went to the closest one we know of, just opposite the campus gates. The loud dance music that we could hear as we walked by must mean that they are professionals, right? We walked in and thought we had stepped back in time to the days when Flock of Seagulls & Kajagoogoo were popular. All of the stylists were young men with hair styles that required more hair product than I own at the moment. They look like they had just stepped out of a convertible and it had not been traveling the speed limit. The "wings" were going in all directions. They were all dressed in black, which is normally a good sign, but were accessorized with safety pins (both in their clothes and in their ears). They nonetheless gave Don an okay haircut but it wasn't as short as he would have liked. It only cost 10 yuan (just over $1) so we didn't complain.

The other day, we went to the salon on campus. Ok, "salon" is being generous but there were a few barber chairs and two smiling older ladies in smocks who seemed to know what they were doing. With Jerry's help, we convinced the lady to cut Don's hair as short as he liked it. Of course, she couldn't believe that he liked it that short so she shaved a big chunk of his hair in the back to show me how short it was. I assured her that he wanted it that way but thought to myself that if he didn't, it was too late. They even rinsed his hair afterwards. It cost 3 yuan (43 cents) and there is no tipping here. It was supposed to have cost 4 yuan but when Jerry told me the price, I was all "but you told me it was 3 yuan!". He explained that he bought a card for that gave him a discount and 10 haircuts. I told him we needed to buy one of those discount cards too.

I wanted Jerry to write detailed instructions on the back of the card since we had such a hard time convincing them to get the cut Don wanted. The ladies assured us that they'd remember. How many white foreigners come in to get their head almost shaved? One!

J