A Hairy Situation

We walked to the local salon yesterday. The girls decided that they wanted to have their hair washed at a traditional Chinese hair salon. In China, having your hair washed is a very common practice. Most people do not wash their hair daily. About every other day they will go to the salon and have their hair washed, moisturized, scalp massaged, body massaged, and then hair dried and styled. The men will also get a shave.

Upon entering the salon, the bustling establishment went completely silent. All eyes were focused on the six foreigners that had crossed the store threshold. Yuki began giving orders to the employees, that the girls wanted to have a 20 Yuan ($2.50 USD) hair washing and massage. (This was a pretty expensive hair washing in Chinese standards) The salon workers began to shuffle around and clear beds. I know that sounds unusual that you lay on a bed and not sit in a chair but the hair washing experience lasts approximately 30 minutes. The shampoo is the first to be applied, this is followed by conditioner and then oils to provide vitality to the hair. After the washing is completed, the salon employee then begins a full body massage. Giggles began to erupt from our girls. They were all ticklish and would break out into laughter.

The boys hung back initially until they made sure it was safe. Once all of the girls were lathered up and relaxed, the boys decided to join the hair washing experience. Before long, their eyes were closed and they were completely relaxed as the shampoo girls washed their hair.

After all was washed, conditioned and rinsed, came the blow drying. The locks of hair shimmered from the treatment. One of the boys did not want his hair dried. The Chinese stylist at this salon tended to pull out the curl in the hair and he had big brown curls that were already struggling to maintain their shape due to the extensive conditioning and oil treatment they had received.

As we were leaving, Yuki shared that this was the first time that anyone in that salon had every worked on a white person's hair. We take for granted that we are the oddity here. This was a unique experience for all parties involved.