It Sucks as it Cuts

One of the biggest fears I had living in France was getting my haircut. Language textbooks and general vocabulary don't prepare you to explain what you want done. And this is where cultural misunderstanding can get you some strange results. Since I got to Japan I've experienced some strange things when it came to haircuts. I'm all for getting a haircut to look clean and proper but I sometimes just dread going out because a haircut in Japan is "like a box of chocolates...".

Now when I mean weird I mean not the things I usually experience when I get a haircut. Every time I got a haircut in Asia, something strange happened.

Haircut #1
After being here for about a month and a bit, I finally came to the decision that a haircut was needed. We got out a sheet of paper and looked up all the words in the dictionary that I would need to say and went out to look for a place. In Canada and France I understand that a haircut for women can run around $50, but to be honest women only get a cut once every few months. Guys should have it done every month or so. Plus the job is not nearly as high, so it should be cheaper! As it turns out the cost of haircuts in Japan are CRAZY, about $40-$50 for men or women.

We walked around looking for a barber for nearly an hour. Two things, 1) I'm not that cheap but I refuse to pay $50 for a haircut, which I ended up doing anyway because we couldn't find a cheaper place. 2) Japanese must have some kind of hair fetish because they have salons on every street corner. I'm talking worse then Tim Horton's and McDonald's put together! For every major street there is a hair place every 10min by foot.

The cut itself was alright...

Haircut #2
End of January while in Taiwan, a group was holding some kind of charity sale on the side of a major road. And strangely enough they were offering haircuts. I just did it for the novelty of this picture because I've never had a haircut on the side of a road before. The wind felt nice. It was only a trim but it looked good

Haircut #3
This was truly a strange experience. The guy I found could not speak English. The hair models were all Japanese and, in my opinion, all had terrible hair in the pictures. I guess I don't get Japanese men's hairstyles. I mean look at this guy. Can you imagine a westerner getting a cut like that? He looks cool like out a manga or something, but on me that would just look queer.

My barber tried to impress me with his bad English and his interest in 24 and Keifer Sutherland. His phone even rang the way the CTU phones ring.

So what was strange about this cut? At the end of the cut, he gave me a quick back massage. I'm sure the expression on my face would have made this blog really great but it freaked me out. I'm sure he liked me but that was really strange.

Haircut #4
Turns out the whole massage thing is not that gay as a female stylist did the same thing. This time, a friend of mine took me out to somewhere Japan and did all the explaining for me. This woman was like a master swordsman with her scissors. It was cool to see but it took forever.
One interesting thing that happened at each cut, except for the street one of course, was that first they cut my hair and then shampooed it after. It was really nice. I defiantly approve of leaving a place with a completely clean head. They should do that in Canada.

Haircut #5
This week I found a place that charges $10. All I needed was a trim so I went in. Everything as as expected, massage, cut, but this time he did something new.
After cutting my hair he took out one of these and began to vacuum my head. Afterwards, he continued cutting like nothing happened. I know there is a Wayne's World "it sucks as it cuts" joke in there somewhere but it certainly did not suck. Surprisingly it felt really nice.

Not sure what will happen the next time I get a haircut. Not sure how much it will cost but even though I have the vocabulary down, this place still finds a way to surprise me.