a trip to the big city for my first haircut in korea!

it's taken me over a year and a half to take the plunge of getting my hair chopped in korea! i always get it cut the day before leaving california, from octavia, the hairdresser extraordinaire, and then i end up back in california 4 months later looking like a yellow-haired raggedy ann. well, this semester i reached the point where i didn't want to start looking like a scruff ball, so i embarked upon a daring mission to seoul. i spent the day in itaewon, which is a neighborhood that caters to foreigners...a variety of international restaurants and grocery markets, english bookstores, english speaking hairdressers, etc... i had lunch with a friend at "chakra," a delicious indian restaurant situated down a cozy little alleyway. then we went to "what the book," a fantastic resource for those of us who are limited to reading books written in english. i could bask in that shop for days. k and i perused for a couple of hours, then moseyed on to an indian food market, which was a little slice of heaven for someone who lives in country-bumpkin gyeongsan, where a packet of instant, korean-style indian curry is the best one can find in any of the supermarkets. and let me just say, it's a far cry from authentic indian food. so i filled my backpack full of tasty spices, papadi, lentils, chickpeas, dried apricots, raisins...! k and i said our goodbyes and i headed up to michel's hair shop, which k highly recommended. turns out the shop was closed because it was monday. UGH! i'd been gearing myself up ALL day! alas. so, i found a coffee shop instead and relaxed with a piece of biscotti, a latte and read my newly purchased book.

that evening i met my dear friend, jungmyung, for dinner and tea at a traditional teahouse. i originally met jungmyung several years ago while living in california. she was in the process of attaining her phd. she helped me to find a job in korea, and now she has moved back to seoul in hopes of opening a women's wellness center. she's doing radical work in a very conservative, resistant culture.
we both ordered the steaming hot jujube tea...very medicinal on a cold, rainy korean night.after an evening of catching up, we hopped into a taxi and went to jungmyung's house up in the hills of seoul. this is a view of her living room and front window, looking out onto beautiful trees and the city off in the distance. our beautiful breakfast that she prepared ready and waiting on the table... her home is a sanctuary. i feel so lucky to be able to go and visit her often.
i returned to michel's the next day before heading back home. here we are, post-haircut!
michel was an absolute hoot. he spent several years doing hair in vancouver, but said there were way too many white people, so he came back to korea and set up a salon in itaewon where foreigners frequent but many koreans come as well. i could understand where he was coming from. he gave me a quick shampoo and then sat me down in the chair. my heart was pounding, as the point of no return had arrived. i explained what i wanted him to do and he seemed to approve. after cutting some of the length off, he proceeded to twirl chunks of my hair and then vigorously cut at each twisted up chunk, up and down in sporadic, sawing motions with one of those scissors that looks like it's going to cut all the way through but only cuts partially to give the hair texture. before i realized it was a partially cutting pair of scissors, i exclaimed, "what are you doing, michel?!" he casually said, "oh, this is just a little technique a created! it will keep you from getting split ends." "right." after that, i decided i just had to surrender to the experience. he was moving way to fast and furiously for me to have any foresight or control over what he was going to do next. and it all turned out ok in the end.
now that i've had a few days to absorb my first haircut experience in korea, i think i'd do it again! it took me a few days to figure out exactly what he'd done to my hair and how to style it, but i think i've got it now. and he gave me some pretty wicked korean hair wax that works like aveda could only dream of.