Hair in the 'hood
Before the heat and hot water fiasco, I got a haircut. It had been far too long. I had been postponing it in the vain hope I'd win the lottery and could fly my hairdresser from back home here. But I finally faced up to reality and went to find a hair salon near me. I wanted a neighbourhood salon, cos I like to support local businesses - it's about supporting community... that and the fact I can't afford an expensive salon downtown :^)
There are 3 salons near me - right around the corner. I sussed them all out, and chose the one I know is always busy - like restaurants, an empty salon is never a good sign.
It's a Dominican salon - so we negotiated colours for my hair partly in Spanish, and partly in English. Then I held the protective cape around my neck as I leaned back in the chair to get to the sink. No lounges and scalp massages here..
The colour on my head was bright red. I asked in Spanish if it was going to be that bright.. no no no I was assured.
Eventually it was washed off, my hair cut and to top it all off, they blow dried it straight, and curled the ends. It looked amazing. I still don't think straight hair really suits me, but it was really good. I walked out into the street and suprised the guys hanging outside who always see me go by to take my washing to the laundromat.
I saw my brother that night and 2 other friends, and then worked the next day with straight hair. Most people were suprised, a few didn't notice! One guy I know asked if the curly or the straight hair was natural. I told him how my mother is convinced I actually have straight hair, and if I just left it alone, it'd be fine. Once I went round to see her after the only other time I've had my hair blow dried straight. She saw me and said "See??!! I told you if you left it alone it would be straight!" I had to tell her that it had taken 3 hours to get it to look like that :^)
The best thing about the haircut is that now I have a great local salon to go to, it isn't that expensive, and I even managed to negotiate the discussing hair in Spanish and mandatory tipping.
