Tonsorial Tales in China

Tonsorial Tales in China
DaqingDevil Jul 04, 2013 20:03

I had a haircut today and, well, I am intrigued at the number of hairdressers that exist in this city. I don’t dare call them “barbers” which is an expression unfamiliar to Chinese anyway and in fact, I have seen the word only once in an English book here. I said the word ‘barber’ in a conversation once to a Chinese assistant and she had no idea what I was talking about and had never heard the word.  It’s not like at home where a shop will be the one of its type in a suburb unless you are in one of those huge shopping malls where you will find a few barber shops and hairdressers. Here, it seems people that want to cut hair like to be together, maybe to exchange gossip from clients or just as some sort of camaraderie. I don’t know. I admit I am puzzled.

 

My apartment backs onto a court that has about 22 shops that all face into the court. 5 of them are hairdressers, 5 are restaurants, a dress shop, a music shop, 2 internet cafes, a kind of deli, a pharmacy, 2 massage/health shops, a shoe shop, what seems to be a medical centre and a sort of gift store. One is under renovation – as usual. Not only in my court do we have this amalgamation of like businesses but around the corner in the main street somebody, well a lot of bodies actually, thought it would be a good location for hardware stores. So, in a row of about 18 shops, opposite the big market, there are 11 hardware stores with 4 of them next door to each other! How does that work?

 

Anyway, back to barber shops. I’m not homophobic but all the guys that work in these places look…well…queer. The hairdo’s they have are mainly any colour but black, which would be their natural colour, and the styles range from hair piled on top that looks like an exotic animal to Chinese style mullets which look nothing like western mullets but seems to be a spear shaped length of hair at the back that runs down onto their collar. I’ve gotten used to these guys massaging my scalp and shampooing my hair not once, but twice, once before they cut my hair and again when my cut is done. You certainly can’t complain about the prices which range from 10RMB to 20RMB ($1.90 to $3.75) and remember, there is only about 1 week between a bad cut and a decent one right? I went without a haircut for 8 months at one stage because the guys kept wanting to give me the standard Chinese cut regardless of what I was trying to tell them. I even went as far as writing it in English, translating it into Chinese characters via Google and handing the printed instruction to the hairdresser. He read it, smiled, nodded and I still ended up with him attempting to cut my hair his way and at one place I actually stood up and told the guy to stop cutting!

 

I don’t know what training these guys have as barbers….oops….I mean hairdressers but if you see a Chinese guy walking out of a hairdressing shop it all looks like short, short back and sides and a little cap of hair left on the top. How hard is that? A real daring cut would be some sort of pattern cut into the top bit, such as a smiley face or maybe a lucky number. Anyway, I would imagine a pair of clippers would suffice and in 4 minutes you’re done. Maybe it’s when women come in that their real craft can be expressed.

 

If you want to get a haircut with ‘extras’, rumours abound and apparently these places exist but I have yet to see one. Prostitution is illegal but a recent legal ruling in China states that a “Happy Ending” does not constitute prostitution nor is it breaking the law!! That news started a flurry of activity in massage parlours and probably some hairdressing salons where training was given to staff on how to supply the customer with a happy ending. The most interesting place I have ever been to where haircuts can mean anything but, is a little town called Miri in Malaysia on the island of Sarawak right next door to Brunei from where foreigners pour out on a weekend to enjoy alcohol (banned in Brunei) and to get their weekly haircut!

Tags:General Language & Culture Expat Tales Lifestyle

2 Comments

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bayuvar139

So far - 5 years in China - I have never ever been able to get the haircut I asked for [in Chinese language]. They listen politely and then 'proceed'. Even if I ask 'aren't you cutting off too much?' they always assure me that they are doing what I had asked for and once they are finished I will like my haircut. Always wrong; I never like my haircut and then they tell me that 'it is best haircut for me'. So, I wait another month until I like my hair again. LOL.

Jul 06, 2013 07:36 Report Abuse