Chinese Haircut

One of the pleasures in living here is a monthly visit to get a haircut. It consists of shampoo, haircut and blowdry for the low, low price of 40 RMB (about $4.80 in US dollars). The haircut is cheap, by comparison to the US prices, but also involves so much more than the same services in the US.

First, the shampoo. The Chinese refer to this as "washing head" and not "washing hair". The whole head washing process takes about 20 minutes and involves a pretty thorough scalp and hair scrubbing -and also includes a very nice and relaxing face and scalp massage.

After the shampoo you are whisked away to the barber chair to wait for the next available hair stylist to come and start the hair cutting. While waiting for the hair stylist you are given a neck and back massage by the shampoo person. The hair stylist arrives and starts with the scissors and comb. Generally, haircuts for men are not too bad here but the Chinese barbers have a tendency to leave the hair a little long on the top - at least longer than my liking. Maybe they are trying to help me cover up my bald spot, who knows?

Hair cutting finished, back to the shampoo area for another 10 minutes of shampooing and then back to the barber chair for the blowdry. Not a bad waste of an hour on a Sunday afternoon.