Hair Dye

This past Saturday, i went to a “Chinese” hair place. This was an in-between of the “foreigner” hair stylists and the street alley super-Chinese hair cutters. As a Westerner in a foreign country, the language barrier can be the obstacle you must overcome for a hair cut. You either don’t get your hair cut, get your hair cut at a place that obviously caters to foreigners and English speakers at a higher cost, or you put a smile on and go with the flow at a more local place.

Now, getting a hair cut at a local place does not automatically equal disaster. If you and the stylist are patient enough and with an excellent game of charades, the desired or near desired style can be achieved. Go with a Chinese speaker (fluent or limited) and your chances of success are even greater. So Sina and I decided to check out a place that was recommended by one of her Chinese co-teachers. I did my best to translate and the people were really patient and nice. Even going to the local convenience store to buy us coffee. I wanted my hair to be dyed a lighter color, a sort of brown ... I just wanted to lighten my hair color. At least, that was the goal.

On Monday, I go back to teach Chinese kindergartners. Some of my kids notice and the responses I got were super cute:

“Amy Laoshi .... her hair is YELLOW!”
“Amy ... *pulls his own hair* ... brown!” - my favorite 5 year old Korean kid, Alex

“What color is my hair?”
“Black and .... green.”
“uh ... are you sure?”
“Black and ... brown?”

“Amy is orange”
“It looks red”
“It is black”

and the sweetest one ...
“Amy, you are pretty.” Okay everyone, collective “awww....”

I am going to argue that these kids are so young and English is a foreign language to them. So half of them don’t know what they are saying. haha =P My hair is for sure not yellow, green, red or orange. It is because of the way the light hits the top of my head that makes it appear a lot lighter than the rest of my hair. I am going to give it a few days to “settle down.” Put on a smile and go with the flow. =)