Monday, October 02, 2006

Darin Gets a Haircut - Posted by Darin

My first haircut in Singapore was a couple months ago at the IMM Mall near the Dell office. There's a place called $10 for 10 minutes. Nobody in the store is allowed to handle money. You buy a haircut token at a vending machine just inside the door (it only takes $10 bills) and sit on the lowest numbered chair that's open. As the person in chair #1 is taken to get a haircut, everyone shifts over to the next lower numbered chair. I left the establishment with a $10 haircut that made me look like a neo-Nazi. My friend Wallace would have been afraid of me.My second haircut was last weekend at a shopping center near our apartment. It looks like a "normal" hair salon you'd find anywhere. It is run by Japanese women and the receptionist spoke little English and appeared to be frightened of me. Luckily, the stylist spoke English well enough to understand my instructions: "Number 3 on the sides and scissors on top". She walked over to a closet and retrieved a small cookie sheet from the top shelf. This sheet contained "the clippers". Apparently there is only one set that is shared by all four cutting stations. And nobody is responsible for cleaning "the clippers". I had always imagined Japanese people to be obssessed with cleanliness, but the amount of hair clippings on the old steel tray and stuck all over the cutters and to the power cord forced me to reconsider this stereotype. Should I have demanded that she at least perform a cursory "wipe" or blow off the majority of the clippings from the device before pressing it against my head? I didn't.The scissors were equally covered in little black hairs (straight hairs, thank God). The good news is I looked like a million bucks afterward. Was it worth it? How much is a good haircut worth to you??

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