my NEW hair!

I have always wanted to cut my hair before I go back to NZ. The other day, I was walking past this hair school whereby people can get their hair cut for JPY700 (approx. NZ$8.65) by students.

Since I am in my last leg residing in Japan, and traveling quite a bit, I am tight in money and decided it is a good try. I mean how hard is cutting fringes right?

As i entered into the school with a friend (HH), 18 students and 3 senseis crowded around us, eager to chop our hair into pieces as they experiment and learn on us guinea pigs. As we signed away the "liability/disclaimer" forms, me and HH sold our hair to them.

Firstly - shampoo...turned out as a "not so good" standard (and by that I mean Japanese standard which is very high in the service industry).

Secondly - he sat me down in my seat, dropped his comb.. uh...ok...by now, I wasn't sure whether I should jus flee when I still have the chance.. but my trainee hairdresser gave me his 19 year old look, and I said, heck, hair can be sacrificed.. his experience is worth more... (man, felt so self-sacrificial). However, I couldn't help noticing that the "customers" there were mostly old ladies going for a trim.

Thirdly - HH and I tried to communicate in our broken Japanese and our respective trainees' broken English to indicate what hairstyle we want...Fortunately, I brought a pic of Nelly Furtado in her "Say it Right" videoclip and merely pointed at her fringe.

Fourthly - the scissors went snipping. Half an hour later, some fringes appeared on me, and he started blowdrying my hair which took like 1 and 1/2 hours...and something went into my eye and I started tear-ing. He got nervous and kept asking whether I was all right, and rushed for the tissue box.

Anyway, I parted with my JPY700 happily and even took a pic with my hairdresser. As HH and I leave the place, all the students and the senseis bowed at us, walked us to the door and shook our hands, and bow some more.

All in all, I didn't manage to look like a sexy Canadian Nelly, but turned very Jap doll instead. Who am I to kid with my Asian features huh? :)