Hairy Business
There's comes a moment where for many women, and some men too, you realize something has to change. It doesn't necessarily need to be drastic, but you're delighted having the possibility that it could be. The moment can happen at any time, but usually it come unexpected in an instant of looking left as you cross the street, or reaching down to fasten a shoe, or even at the moment of awareness that comes upon first waking. It's unshakable and blaring. It's the moment of acceptance that your HAIR HAS TAKEN OVER YOUR BODY! Hair is pretty powerful stuff, if you don't believe me check it out yourself!
I'm sticking solely to head hair here, although much consideration on this topic could and really should be given to other areas of the body. But let's not go there.
and I thought I had it bad...
It dawned on me last Sunday as I was strode by the female and fashion magazines straight to the Mountain biking, yoga, and scuba diving section of the book store that… I'm a bit of a "tom boy."
This mentality, combined with the thought, "My actions and soul are possessed by my hair!" is in no way calming.
Take that in to consideration COMBINED YET AGAIN with being in a foreign country with white person hair. It's different in texture that Asian hair and I've got this natural wave and all sorts of funky cowlicks to consider.
And then on top of that, I'm cheap.
Feel overwhelmed yet?
Throughout it all, I've developed a method to deal with such complications.
When you first arrive in a new country, there's a million nuances of foreignness blasting at your senses, ringing in your ears, and crawling up your nose. After a while, however…. those sensations start to fade as you become accustomed. It isn't long until the days become mundane, cultural differences become norms or annoyances and the time zips by. Look around and notice some of the things that make your home what it is. For me, I love to observe the sounds of sirens or alarms in the city, how often is rains or doesn't, smells of different shops. It's one of the little things in life that is there to notice and enjoy.
Getting a haircut is a trick I learned from my brother when he still lived in Shanghai. Talk about good advice! We were talking on the phone one evening and he mentioned he'd gotten his hair cut that day on the street for $1. ONE DOLLAR?? Sure enough, there was someone on the side of the street with a sign, scissors and a stool so he sat down and had a trim.
The next time the symptoms of hair-possession began to show itself with the usual overheating, hair in food, and tangled mess of a nest, the local hair dressing shops suddenly popped out at me. Instead of paying 10x the price, I could risk it at a local shop. Hair grows back, after all.
It's been years since and I still prefer to use local hair dressers. Often they don't speak English, but this is one of the simplest ways to practice the language or a great game of gestures. Usually both! It does require an annual visit to a more boutique hairdresser to get things back in order occasionally and there are instances where I want to cry afterwards, but my hair is in no more threat than the horror stories I've heard from most any salon.