So it was time.
I entered with some trepidation and a bit of hope.
My hair was pretty bad. It really couldn’t get worse.
I looked around at the organized chaos and wondered if I should walk away. Another look in the mirror and I knew I couldn’t.
I sit down in a sea of a beautifully made up women, decked to the nines from head to toe. I glance at my flared jeans and red t-shirt and wonder what I had been thinking. Clearly it had not been about my wardrobe.
As I gather my wits, I glance around at the system. I am sure there is one but it is as foreign to me as Arabic is. I notice looks being exchanged as one woman “demands” something, clearly amusing to those who understand her. I wish I understood.
I am signaled and soon the hair wash begins. So far so good. I am directed to my chair and my guy shows up. He looks at me with the towel on my head and says:
Volume! Big Volume! Lots of Layers!
And I wonder how he knows when he can’t see my hair.
Off goes the towel and then the shock or is it horror is revealed.
You need to colour your hair!
I look down sheepishly and meekly say that I want to see how this goes first.
Dismayed, he shakes his head and the scissors come out.
My head is yanked in every direction as he surfaces and resurfaces all around me as he gets the right angle for each and every strand. My hair is screaming for attention and attention it receives. Almost embarrassingly so.
I wonder how much more he can cut. I wonder how much longer he can cut.
I stand up. He jumps in front of me and cuts. I sit down. He crouches down and cuts. All the time, his perfectly coiffed hair never moves and nor does his chest hair, popping out from his half buttoned shirt, perfectly appointed to reveal.
I think I am getting too old for all this.
The manager walks over. Words are exchanged. Not nicely. I think my guy has been told to hurry up.
And there is no hurrying up my guy.
The posturing begins, looks are thrown and I am no longer under the radar. In fact, I am now on center stage and I don’t know my lines!
Now my guy has slowed down even more. The classic oppositional defiance has set in and each strand gets cut for the zillionth time.
And then I hear. My name is Mar Juana.
Seriously?!
I will colour your hair next time.
Next time?!
It appears he is done. He walks away. I sit there. I don’t know what to do.
Slowly, or so it seems, I slink out of my chair and go to pay.
Oh and the tip? I am motioned to put it into the pocket of his shirt. The final act!
I walk out, sweaty and stressed, thankful it is over.
Jade takes a look at me and announces she can fix it.
Need I say more?
I had to have a haircut in Japan. I can tell you this did not go well, I should have known they wouldn’t know what to do with thick, curly dark red hair. Only good thing is, eventually it all grows back. You should have had Jade just cut your hair the first time around. Saved yourself a lot of frustration from the sounds of it.
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You are braver than I – I will do almost anything in a country where I don’t speak the language, but my hair is not going to be touched unless I can effectively communicate with the person doing the cutting and dyeing!
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Uh-oh. I can’t in good conscience *like* this post. Facing a new hairdresser is bad enough. Not being able to communicate with the snip-happy stylist is terrifying! I too was hoping for a happy ending.
Thank goodness hair grows back … eventually.
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Oh dear. I’m trying not to imagine what the colour treatment might have been like. I think you dodged a bullet there.
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Yup… went to the grocery store and bought do it myself stuff instead. I think I trust my own skills more!
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I guess the only hope is… they will grow back 😀 And you gained an … experience. 😀 Not sure how valuable, but for sure unforgettable 😉
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Yes, it was blog worthy so for that I am grateful ha ha!
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So I guess a ponytail is not an option? That’s my answer to all bad haircuts.
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I know! It is so heavily layered that it isn’t my go to answer this time!
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Yes, the lack of a photo really says it all! How brave of you, though, to give it a go…and thanks for taking us all there with you. May it grow back quickly and thickly~
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Haha! So well said! Thanks for the support!
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Yay for the update. Boo for the update. Yay that you’ve got Jade for emotional and cosmetic support 🙂
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So true as she keeps telling me my makeup is all wrong! Egyptians know how to beautify!
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Happy to hear from you 🙂
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Thanks… wondering how you are doing these days?
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Oh, wow! A mullet? I’m wincing for you and hope the hair fairies do their work quickly.
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I hope the hair fairies know how to fly to Cairo quickly!!!
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Oh no! Sorry to hear that it went so badly.
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Oh well… there are much worse things that could have happened!
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Oh gosh, the horrors of getting your hair cut abroad, eh?! My worst was in Bolivia, when I asked for a trim only to look down and see my hair tumbling to the ground as much more than a trim was cut!!
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That doesn’t sound too promising! Mine hit the ground running as well! Now waiting for it to grow back!
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OH wow! That sounds like it was quite an experience! How did your hair look in the end?
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A little or actually a lot… Strange. Extremely layered and thinned out to the max! Went from pounds of hair to grams of it!!!
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It sounds like a big change. 🙂
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OH yes… like everything here!
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i bet!
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Oh no!
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Unfortunately it is Oh yes!
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hahahaahaaa!!!!!!! What an experience!
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Yes that it most definitely was!
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh. I was so rooting for a happy ending! The first haircut in a foreign country is MAJOR. I lucked out with mine: a very quick, stylish, Roman pro. The only question he had for my amore beforehand was: Does she prefer it smooth or messy? And he knows the answer to that: nothing smooth about me. But I don’t wish to add the hot oil where it burns. 😀 Lovely hearing about it, anyway.
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I am so glad your’s was successful! I am hoping that it grows out quickly and maybe I will forget this very multi layered look once ever adorned my head!!
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You need not say more. Jade’s comment and the fact that there is no accompanying picture both speak volumes! I hope she did fix it and you are not too traumatised by the experience. Thanks for the laugh.
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I am trying to get past it! Haha We just went out for dinner so I was seen in public with her however, she did remind me it looks like a mullet!!
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You would have been SO fashionable – 30 years ago…..
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Ha ha! You are so right!
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