I'm planning on going to Beijing this Thursday night (by myself, though I'm hoping to meet up with some other friends who will be arriving a day or two after I do, for those of you following the May Day holiday plans). However, since I don't want to have to worry too much about how my hair looks while I'm traveling, I decided to get it cut tonight.
This is only my second haircut in China. I'm not particularly fond of haircuts, though long hair drives me crazy, especially around my ears. And not knowing much Chinese, I tend not to go out and do newish things potentially involving long-term results all by myself. Last semester a friend went along to help me out. However, since my vocabulary has expanded to include such words as "hair" and "too long," I decided now was the time to venture out by myself on this one.
It's difficult to find what I would consider to be a normal barbershop around here. Most of them resemble salons or beauty parlours, and being from the upper Midwest, I'm not terribly fond of the association such terms bring to mind. Barbershops are for men. Beauty parlours/salons/what-have-you are for women. But China is a bit more "liberated" in that respect, so salonish-type establishments are pretty much your only choice, unless you want to go to the guy with his chair set up among the food vendors at the closest intersection.
Also, in my barbershop back home, you'll find a normal looking older man and a middle-aged lady who cut everyone's hair. It's a very plain, simple small-town kind of thing, and it's what I'm used to. But here, most of the salon haircutters or beauticians or whatever you call them are young men in their early twenties with fairly wild hair, for Chinese people. If I saw them in the States, I would probably leave the establishment and never again darken its door. However, people have told me that here, you want a guy to cut your hair at a salon. Apparently the salons with mostly or all ladies cutting the hair tend to offer more personal kinds of "services" in room you can't see from the street. Even the Chinese girls I know won't go to those shops. They've told me that the beauticians aren't exactly trained in how to cut hair.
Anyway, I walked into the barbershop that I thought my friend had taken me to last semester (I guessed correctly) and told them "Wo de toufa tai chang le" ("My hair [is] too long"). I asked how much it cost, but they immediately seated me in the wash-your-hair chair. Remembering that from last semester, I wasn't too alarmed. One guy washed my hair and then ushered me to a different chair where a girl--possibly the owner? (she had a name tag on, whereas no one else did)--cut my hair.
As she was cutting, she said, "Ni you baise" ("You have white [hair]").
I think she offered to color it for me, but I declined. "Bu yao yanse" ("[I] don't want color"). I wanted to say, "Wo de xueshengmen hui kan. Tamen hui jueda, women de jiaoshi tai lao. Ta shi laoshi!" ("My students will see [it]. They'll think, our teacher [is] very respectable*. He is a respected-teacher!") But I wasn't sure if that was right. I'll mention it to my Chinese teacher this week and see what she thinks. (*The word "lao" can mean either respected or old when referring to a person. Maybe they would just think I'm old but not so respectable!)
Once the lady finished cutting my hair, she sent me back to the washing chair. The first guy (I think--I didn't have my glasses on) washed my hair again and sent me to another chair where yet another guy dryed my hair and combed it. I then paid another lady, who said it was only 5 yuan ($0.60)! While the haircut isn't as short as I would get it in the States, who can argue at that price. Then again, with my language skills, I'm not sure I could argue about it anyway. ;-)
I should mention that all of this took place in an area smaller than a typical college dormitory room. And they had two other chairs for cutting hair in that room, people to man each one, and a sofa for the cutters to sit on while they're waiting for clients!
Posted by at April 25, 2004 6:49 PM