My Japanese Routine. Part 2. How to Get a Haircut in Japan
ATTENTION: There’s no valuable information you can find here about Japanese hair salons . Only fun.
My last week in Russia I was in a rush and forgot to cut my hair. I haven’t cut them since May, so it definitely was the time.
Why not to do it in Japan? Beauty and hair salons here are a dime a dozen, at least according to the advertising in newspapers and my Google maps. How can one say no to wearing a cut with a label “Japanese quality”?
So, you can go to the salon
I searched in Internet.
My first choice was “Burn Hair Creation”. Very encouraging name, I loved it. And it had 5 stars, which made it twice worth checking.
Sadly, except the name and the words TEL and FAX there was no sign of English there.With the help of Google Translate I found the price. 5,000 yen for a general cut is a bit too much by Russian standards - it is 3000 rubles (or 40 EUR), when in Russia I usually pay about 10 EUR.
By the way — favourite Japanese thing. The given price is not final, it doesn’t include taxes. You have to do the math by yourself and add 8%. Good training for those, who haven’t practised counting since the last day of secondary school.
After checking a few more salons with good rate I found “Cut Factory” with its 2.3 stars. The website with funny bunnies says that you pay only 1000 yen (8 EUR) for a cut + 80 yen tax. Who cares about 2.3 stars after this?
I went to Google maps to check the route. 4 hours walking?.. Or 1 hour by train, 700 yen one way. Very tempting, but no.
Luckily, 10 days ago, expecting the haircut to be super-expensive, I bought special scissors for 1200 yen (=10 EUR, just like my haircut in Russia).
So, you can stay at home
I asked Yann, my boyfriend, to become my barber. He agreed. Watched a couple of video tutorials on youtube: easy!
The agreement was to cut not more than 5 cm. This is my own rule I always want the barbers to stick to. But as they never do and cut twice more, I ask for 2 cm.
I thought that my boyfriend was not gonna be like those barbarous barbers and gave him a 5 cm rule. Yann wanted to show himself as a cautious man and decided to start with cutting off only 2 cm. To be precise, he used a ruler.
In the meanwhile I was wondering, what for my hair was tied up in many different places… The video shows, what for.
We untied the cut tail and found hair of about 2 cm different length. I suggested to forget the method “I tie all your hair and cut it off in one fell swoop” and continue with more traditional ways.
The final result I would call “Ringo Starr of 60s without a fringe”.
A short lesson for those who consider trying this type of Japanese cutting off session:
- Don’t buy the scissors. You can use this money to pay for the train to the cheapest hair salon in your city.
- If you have already bought them, hide all the hairbands you have at home before you start the session.
- Follow the rule of 2 cm, but do not use the ruler!
As for me, I am still looking for the ways to make myself look more girlish. Maybe, I will have to come back to my Russian habits: wear dresses and skirts, make-up every day. Or to buy a kimono. A sign “I am not a boy” should be enough too. One thing is for sure: next time you see me I will be wearing a haircut made in Japan.
