Korean Haircut

I got my haircut right before coming to Korea, and for the last two and a half weeks I have let it grow, delaying the inevitable. Eventually, as the edges began to curl out into a shag, I decided that I would have to finally stop putting off going to a barbershop.

And so today on my way home from work I did just that. I walked into the shop and the first thing I noticed was that it was not at all like the Greatclips I have gone to my whole life. There was one barber, who was in the middle of cutting a man's hair. He glanced up at me, and then back down to his work, saying nothing. I fumbled out a piece of paper with a couple of phrases I had asked one of my co-workers to write down. "Hello, I am here for a haircut," I muttered out in broken Korean. Again the barber glanced up, but said nothing, the man whose hair he was cutting started laughing. I felt exposed, standing in the middle of a Korean barbershop, holding my briefcase, with not much idea about what was appropriate for me to do.

I mustered up the Korean I've picked up since being here and managed to ask if I needed an appointment (I didn't), if the wait was long (it wasn't), and how much it cost (about 10 bucks). I was satisfied with this and took a seat in the waiting area. As I sat, I tried to think about how I was possibly going to describe what kind of haircut I wanted.

After waiting for a bit, the time came for me to have a seat. The barber spoke no English at all, so I was completely on my own. I managed to get across that I wanted to have a lot of hair cut off, other than that, all I could do was keep my fingers crossed.

As the barber cut my hair, we chatted a bit. I got through the typical small talk that I've come to memorize. How are you? What is your name? I'm a student from America, etc. It didn't take me long to wear out my Korean, and so I just sat and waited for the barber to finish his job.

The process was quite different from an American haircut. The barber took his time, unlike previous haircuts where I feel like the person cutting my hair is trying to set a personal record. When it came time to trim my neck, the barber didn't use a pair of clippers, but lathered my neck with shaving cream, and shaved the hair off with an old school strait razor.

The result was the best haircut I've ever gotten, far better than anything you could get for a similar price in the states. Being the goofy guy I am, I couldn't resist posting a picture of my new hairdo, that I think is.... "out of this world."