Maria's Korean Haircut

To be honest, this is my second haircut here in Korea. The first was 2 weeks ago, and was a totally different experience. However, this blog is about my second Korean haircut.

It all occured last Saturday. Ethan, our new sidekick Chris, and I spent an interesting afternoon at this strange "cultural museum" we randomly found on the map. The "museum" was filled with interesting "artifacts" like Korean masks, antique hair pins, John Denver albums, and stuffed animals (all with very threatening teeth and eyes...even the otters). After we made it back to Gwangju I met up with my friend Angie.

My Canadian friend Angie and I spent about an hour roaming downtown ducking into one after another in search of the right one. Our criteria was basically that it must have several people inside, be well lit, and be giving off a good vibe. Of course, we were avoiding the dreded "double barbor pole" salons of which are the topic of many rumors amongst us forigners...true or not, we weren't going to be the one to find out!

We finally settled on one, and just as I had experienced with my first haircut in Korea, we were greeted by silence (you could hear a pin drop) and stares (mouths gaping wide) by all 15 or so people at the salon. After I managed to communicate that we both wanted haircuts, all attention focused on me. Our best guess is that they've never seen such curly hair before. The hair designer dropped what he was doing, and rushed to my side. After somehow communicating what I wanted, he and his assistant (at the same time) started brushing out my hair. Now, if you aren't that farmiliar with my hair type, let me tell you....you DON'T brush it when it is dry. Big mistake. Haha! They figured that one out after witnessing my afro, so for the second try, they decided to stick with what they know. So, they got out 2 straightening irons and went to work. It only took about 5 minutes for them to get my hair straight, however, they didn't stop there....they kept straightening for like 30 minutes or so more (before and after cutting). Why? I can only speculate. The strangest part, by far, was the audience I was attracting with all of this straightening. I had at least 8 people standing behind me staring the whole time. Seriously. I'm not exagerating. You can feel free to check out Angie's blog http://angie-s-fun-filled-adventures.blogspot.com/ to verify this fact. Angie, my straight-haired friend, on the other hand, didn't attract as much of a crowd, but she had a good time laughing at mine! Also, she came out with curls!

When it was all said and done, they took pictures of us with their poloroid cameras, and sent us on our way. And, as it turns out, it's the best haircut I've ever had! I love it. Angie's pleased with hers too.