Hair... cut.

I am proud to say that I got a haircut in Japan and it isn't nearly as freaky as my last haircut here.

I've been relatively spoiled when it comes to haircuts, the same person has been cutting my hair since I've been about 6 years old. (With the exception of one time when I let 3 cute girls cut my hair in high school. The result left me with a decent look from the front and a balding look in the back... Also, George, the man who cuts my hair knew immediately at my next appointment that someone, not him, had cut my hair and that whoever had done it and no idea what they were doing. But they were attractive girls who were my friends and in high school, it's hard to say "No." to that.) So I'm used to just this one place, it isn't at an old musty barber shop, it's a nice salon where I am underdressed everytime and I'm probably not fashion conscious enough to be going there, but I like my haircuts from there...a lot (I like the classic looks, thats how I think of it... "classic"...maybe with a tiny bit of flare. Something that fits well with a classy suit rather than in a club with a with a tight t-shirt covered in glitter-paint dragons and jeans with embroidered lotus flowers up and down the legs). So when it comes to my hair I'm quite picky and don't deal with change particularly well.

I tried the fancy salon style here in Japan when I studied in Nagoya. While I'm not even hip enough for a fashioned western-style haircut, I am light-years behind an asian fashionista haircut. The result was a spiked forward haircut with pseudo-sideburns.

Let me break this haircut down a little more. My hair was spiked FORWARD. Not up, not back... forward. As if I was falling backwards into some wind... or if you bent over to pick up your keys and then sprayed some hairspray on yourself.

The 'Pseudo-sideburn' is the result of many asian men not having as thick of sideburns as a man of European blood like myself (Not that I have massive John-Belushi-Blues-Brothers-mutton-chops, but I HAVE sideburns). It works fine for men with less facial hair. On a chap like me, however, it don't work. What they do is, they grow the hair on the side of their heads longer enough to spike straight down. Kind of like a comb-over but for sideburns. It's trimmed to be slightly remeniscent of a sideburn but it usually a bit more of a spike than a 'sideburn' look. It covers the sideburn area of the face without actually growing in that area... can you picture it now?

So while this look certainly works for...er...some. It definitely didn't work with my "classy-suit" look. It left me with a pair of scissors clipping my hair in my host families bathroom and a scarred and jaded image of what haircuts are like for foreigners in this country.


So that brings us up to date. Before I came here I got my haircut and I photographed it from every side imagineable. I waited out as long as I could before I got my Japanese haircut... but I didn't want to wait TOO long. I didn't want my students thinking I was a caveman and I didn't want it to be so long that the person cutting my hair couldn't tell what my haircut once was. I figured if I let it grow out the haircutter could just keep it a similar shape but just make every part shorter until it resembled the photo I had... a fool proof plan.

So I made it about 2.5 months without a haircut.

I got a reservation at a place about a block from my house called "Y's Hair" Who is Y? I don't know, but it looked like a clean barbershop and I'd seen older men in there getting their haircut which meant that they weren't getting the "standing with your back to a wind tunnel" look. Also, I'm in Urasa, a town with no clubs or anything remotely showing a sign of fashion consciousness. It's a farming town which gave me some hope... but I didn't want it backfiring and giving me a full on buzz and fade to make me look like I just entered the army.

I showed up for my appointment and a man, "Y" I am assuming, cut my hair. I showed him my printed photos of my head. I said "I doesn't have to look exactly like this... but about this length and this general shape." I didn't want to demand a haircut that this man couldn't deliver... it could make him nervous and end up looking bad and then would result in a necessary head shaving. Or worse, I could offend him by coming off as saying "CUT MY HAIR LIKE THIS OR I WON'T PAY YOU, YOU FOOL!!" (Sometimes I fear that it's easy to come off as that rude in Japan if you don't use the right conjugations and grammar in the right situations... though they USUALLY give foreigners slack, though I am convinced that I am the exception and when I leave situations people all talk behind my back saying "How RUDE!")

He took the photos with a smile and didn't seem offended. He got to work. I had a brief moment of panic when I found that the only tool this man was using was thinning shears. (yes, I know what thinning shears are.) In America when I got my haircut there were many tools used, different kinds of shears, ravors, things that buzzed and things that blew, thinning scissors were only used on certain occasions and sometimes not at all, and never were they the only tool used. "You can't paint a room with JUST a roller or JUST a small brush, you need many things to make the paint job even and not splotchy..." I thought to myself, "my canvas! It could be RUINED!"

I am not even sure what the complete purpose of thinning shears are but they have the word "thinning" in them. The last thing my already thin hair needs is to be thinner. I needed thickening-darkening shears. Shears that not only make my hair look thicker on my head but will also grow thick hair on my chest and arms and give me muscles and make me taller. Shears that will also, from a clean shave, give me a well groomed five o' clock shadow, but not TOO well groomed, I don't want to look like George Michaels circa "Faith". Not THINNING shears. *After some research post-haircut I found they can add "texture" to make the hair look "more natural." though I am skeptical*

Anyway, my haircut turned out OK in the end. It's not THAT great looking and as a result of the thinning scissors, I think, my hair has less volume and looks kind of static-y in some spots (like if you hold a baloon over someones head and random pieces stand up, not clumps of hair, just random single pieces) but not staticy enough that you'd be like "Whats going on up there..." while pointing to my head and making a face of disgust. I bought some stuff to put in my hair and it looks a bit smoother.

So after my haircut the guy filled out this paperwork that had various drawings of a mans head. He marked down all the spots where he cut and how he cut it wrote my name on it and stuck it in a file. He gave me back my photograph of my head. I payed 28 bucks and left. This is a B- haircut. A clean 80%. Which is pretty good. In the 90's is damn good. I'm used to upper 90% and even 100% haircuts so this was a drop for me, but it isn't a failure in any way. The real question is, in two more months, do I go back to "Y's"? Or take a risk and go to "Taka" down the street or one of the other places here in Urasa.
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-Mike