Saturday, November 15, 2008

Hair Raising Adventure

Ok, ok, so it wasn't hair raising like the Sixth Sense, but definitely a little frightening. On Friday I got my first haircut in Japan - from a real Japanese person. You're probably thinking, "what's the big deal?" So, I will tell you my 3 reasons it was a big deal: 1. I only know how to say yes, thank you, and excuse me in Japanese, 2. Japanese people don't tend to have curly/unruly hair, and 3. I am overly capable of getting a bad haircut when I am able to communicate to the hairdresser in my primary language. However, I overcame my hesitation when I looked in the mirror and noticed that I resembled a chia pet.

I tried to get a wife from the squadron to do it, but she has sold all her equipment and is out of the biz. So, I started reading reviews online and there seemed to be a concensus that Mr. Miyagi at Cocok's (pronounced Cocoa's) was the person to go to if you have curly hair. I know - when I heard the name I immediately thought of Karate Kid too (wax on, wax off Daniel-san). My confidence went up when I called to make the reservation and the receptionist spoke very good English.

I got there on Friday and was not seated long when I realized Mr. Miyagi speaks no English - zero, zip, nada! At the beginning of your appointment they do give you a translator to tell him what you want. It just so happens that on the day of the haircut my hair wasn't actually as big as usual so I tried to explain to the translator that my hair is usually curly. In response to this she said, "you want palm? you want palm?" I had no idea what she was talking about until she asked one final time and made a spiral motion with her finger. She wanted to know if I wanted a PERM! I really had to stop myself from walking out as I flashbacked to my aunt Wanda giving me 2 perms in 24 hours when I was about 12 - don't ask why because I definitely didn't need more curl; you just never say no to Wanda! So after I said no perm, the first translator left and sent in another one.

The second one seemed to be getting the message across to Mr. Miyagi, but I still wasn't overly confident since I could not understand anything that they were saying!! She asked if I wanted bangs, which I politely refused and then asked me if I brought pictures. Now my American hairdressers always told me to not bring in magazine pictures because you never knew what kind of hair the models had and if your hair would do the same thing. Well, in Japan it's a good idea to bring pictures so they at least get a rough idea of what you want. I had an older picture of me that Mr. Miyagi went off.

The end result is a haircut that I would give an 8 out of 10. For me that is a complete success!! It would have been a 10 if I had known how to tell him to round it more - it's just a little too square. Overall, I am very happy and I'm sure when I go to the states in a week I'll have lots of pictures taken at Mary's wedding and I'll post some.

I hope everyone has a great week and HOW 'BOUT THEM GATORS?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I will have to show my Mum this blog as she used to be a hair dresser and will be very interested in your adventures.

Maybe you shouldn't use the word wax and curly hair in the same sentence. Remember the email 'Wax is not your friend' I still fall off my chair when I read that.

Tyler Tuszynski said...

We are the boys from ol' Florida, F - L - O - R - I - D - A!

The Bertsch Family said...

You are very brave! Can't wait to see the pictures, I'm sure you look great!

Katie said...

Hilarious! Sitting here I can just imagine your horror as you work out she is asking if you want a perm...but still trying to be nice and smile of course! i miss you and enjoy reading your blogs. When I played the video of your house tour Sandy came running to look for you. he was very confused as to why he could hear you but not find you anywhere. It made me sad.