Haircut hilarities

One of the exciting things about living in a foreign country is the new and exciting surprises and challenges that you face every day which you would not think twice about back home. Like getting your haircut for example. When I first got here I went and got my head shaved because I just couldn’t be bothered getting it cut often and the fact that it is incredibly hot here all year round. That was all well and good until I realized that a skinhead means that sweat runs instead of drips off you. So after my hair had grown to an unmanageable length I decided to get a decent haircut. I went to a nice hairdresser that costs about $5AUD which is kind of expensive here. But I figured that I would get what I paid for. I was wrong! I got a new hairdresser that could hardly speak English. Add to that the fact that I had no Tagalog terminology for how to cut my hair. So after 30 minutes of trying to get it right I just gave up and walked out of the shop with a very strange looking haircut indeed. Next time I figured that it couldn’t be as bad as the last time so I just went to a corner shop the night before leaving for Bangkok. This time the haircut was okay and only cost me $1.50AUD, but what happened while I was waiting was truly hilarious. An older Korean businessman was in getting his haircut. But the problem was that he didn’t know any English or Tagalog (or wouldn’t speak it, I’m not too sure) and the people in the shop couldn’t understand what he wanted or how to communicate with him. He wanted a “sports cut” which is supposed to be a little different than a “flat top”. I still don’t know what the difference is though. They both looked the same to me by the time it was all sorted out. But watching the people was so funny, particularly when it got animated. I couldn’t help but laugh. And then when I started laughing everyone else in the shop except for the poor Korean guy did. Eventually it was all sorted out when his companion was found outside somewhere, but I must say that I felt much better about getting my haircut in the Philippines after that.