Last week, I had the most interesting experience in China : going to the hairdresser!
Honestly, I wasn’t too enthusiastic to go. First of all my Chinese skills are so basic that I wasn’t sure to be able to explain him what I wanted, and I also asked many westerners around me to try to gain some advice… The best replies were: “Be careful I went once and I paid more than 100 Kuai…(roughly 8€, which would be expensive)” or “I went there but he didn’t understand me so he totally messed up my hair.” You can easily imagine that this didn’t help me a lot!
In the end my hair got longer and longer, so I decided that I had to try. I took the small English/Chinese dictionary that Intern China gave me when I arrived. When I came to the hairdresser I had to wait because it was only a very little shop, 2minutes walk away from my apartment, and there was afather with his son there before me. During my waiting time I used the dictionary to find some useful expressions like:
“我要理发” (wo yao lifa = I want a haircut) or “不要用这个电推子” (buyaoyong zhege diantuizi = do not use the razor).
Then it was my turn, he first washed my hair, then he showed me a length with his finger asking me if that was ok and then…. he cut my hair.
During the cut I was silently hoping that he will manage to make me a good haircut and that he won’t charge me too much money for it.
It didn’t take a long time and after 10 minutes he stopped and asked me how I liked my new hair. I was really surprised that he did it very well, exactly how I wanted it.
I was really satisfied and I told him in Chinese. He only charged me 15 RMB for it (around 2€), which is cheap, not only in comparison to western prices but also in China. And the best thing is that I managed to explain everything to him without using the expressions from my dictionary 😀
Do you want to join me when I’m going to the hairdresser next time ? Check out our website and send us your application by mail or directly.