Snip, Snip: My first haircut in Korea

Those of you who have lived with me over the past four years know that I ALWAYS get bad haircuts. I don't know what it is about me or my hair, but even the most professional hair stylists struggle to cut it so that it looks normal. Needless to say I was trying to hold off getting a haircut in Korea for as long as possible. But there came a point where I could wait no longer.

I had gotten many recommendations for hair salons from co-workers but most of them were very far away and required me to make appointments well in advance. Well, I don't do that. Usually when I want a haircut I want it right now, so I go to anyone that is available (this might just be why the end result is never what I want). I had an hour break during work and decided to go to the little salon down the street my school. I waited around at work so that one of my Korean co-workers could write me a note in Korean, but they were very busy so I ended up just going with nothing!

When I got in to the hair salon no one spoke any English- to be expected. I sat in the chair and held up my fingers to show him how much I wanted cut off. He matched his fingers to mine, hesitated, and said..ok! Then, he proceeded to brush through my curly hair so that it turned in to one huge frizz ball, and he started chopping away; with my hair dry. I almost had a minor panic attack. After he took off about two inches, he looked in the mirror and started randomly chopping places where it looked uneven. If he would have been able to understand me I would have told him that it wasn't ACTUALLY uneven it just looked that way because there was a big frizzy curl there and if he had wet my hair he would have known that. But instead I just sat and smiled with my heart pumping very rapidly. After he was done cutting he made a motion with his hands and told me my hair was....very big. haha. Once again my inside thoughts were saying, well yeah because you just brushed through my curly hair, but instead I just sat and watched him thin out the bottom part of my hair. Yes I did say thin. I, Shauna Cropsey, the person with the thinnest full head of hair on earth was getting my hair thinned because it looked "big" for the first time in my entire life. I really thought I was going to leave that salon with no hair at all. After he was done, two other men joined my stylist and began straightening my hair all at the same time; talk about royal treatment.

I am sure you are all waiting for me to tell you that even though I have had a lot of bad haircuts in my day this one topped the charts as the worst haircut in history. But, if you are thinking that you are very wrong. It turns out- it was the best haircut I have gotten in the past 4 years- go figure. Korea continues to surprise and amaze me each and every day.