Japanese Hair Salon....Check!

So, today I finally journeyed to a Japanese hair salon, following Misono's wonderful recommendation. I went to Hair JOJO Beauty Shop in Harajuku with Emily today, and right when we walked in, a guy came over to help us (he ended up being the one to do my hair). I showed him the pictures I had, and he showed me how much it would cost (an enormous amount of around $150, but getting a cut and dye in Tokyo is going to be expensive anywhere I go) and then told us to wait just a little bit. We only had to wait for a few minutes before I went to get my hair done.

Japanese salons are both different and similar to salons in the States. First of all, I was given a shoulder massage at the beginning, even before Saito-san (the stylist doing my hair), began fiddling with my hair and asking questions. Then I had to get my hair washed, and their chairs are mechanical, so they flattened out when the woman washing my hair pressed a button. She put a piece of gauze-like fabric over my face...whether to keep me from having to stare up at her, or to keep me from getting water or shampoo on my face, I don't know. She talked to me a little bit while she washed my hair, and and replied back when I knew how. She knew a little English, and substituted things when I didn't understand.

Saito-san worked really quickly with my haircut, compared to how Margaret usually does my hair back home. He asked me a lot of questions before he started, which I did my best to answer. He understood a little English, and said he had gone to New York fifteen years ago. At one point we were talking about how there really isn't an English equivalent of "Otsukaresama deshita" and he asked me if I understood what it meant, so I said I understood a little bit. We also talked a little about how long I was staying in Japan, and where TUJ was. It was really good Japanese practice for me, I think, since no one was helping, and Saito-san didn't know a lot of English, so we spoke in Japanese for 95% of the time. At one point he asked me if Japanese was difficult, and when I said it was, he said English was difficult, lol. The most confusion we had was about the color I wanted my hair to be, since I wanted a blue-purple, but I couldn't explain it, and the hair samples were either too purple or too blue, so I settled for dark blue with black, since I've had that before.

The whole process of dying my hair took forever, since they had to bleach the part that would be blue, and then wash it, and then dye it, and then wash it again. After my last wash, I was given a head massage. Aaah I wish American hair salons did that. Then Saito-san blow-dried my hair and did a few finishing snips before styling it for me. I paid really close attention to the way he did it, so that I can fix my hair on my own. (First thing tomorrow I need to go out to Seiyu and get some styling gunk, haha!) When he was finished, he told me that in three days the blue would be very bright. You really can't see the blue very well in these pictures.

These are taken after we got back...which means that my hair got messed up from the rain and super-strong wind (Emily's umbrella went inside-out twice), so it's not as spiky as it was before, unfortunately. I also had changed shirts, so that also messed up my hair. I wasn't just making things up when I had joked to Emily about the reason why so many guys here have wide-necked shirts that show off their collarbones; it's so they don't mess up their hair when they change!





On non-hair-related news, I bought myself one of those belt purses for only 1,995 yen. I really don't know what to call it, but it can latch onto your belt or clip to your pants, or be worn like a normal shoulder purse. It's just big enough to hold my cell phone, iPod, my more important papers/IDs, and money. I just need to get a little wallet now, to stick my money in. And then I don't need to carry my huge purse around all the time!

I almost bought a fake pair of glasses today for 1000 yen, lol. I put them back after trying them on, but I might, might go back when it's not raining! and get them. Oh, what is the world coming to? They looked so cute, though. The only reason I never wear my real glasses is because I hate not having clear peripheral vision.

Hmm, there's not much else to tell this time. I woke up late today, since someone next door had their phone alarm on vibrate, and it was so loud that it woke both Emily and I up at 7:00am, and whether it ws Matt or James, we don't know, but he kept snoozing it, so it went off about three times before he finally got up. I was ready to hit the wall and shout, "Get up, already!" but I didn't. The problem is that when I wake up early and then go back to sleep, I wake up really late and still feel exhausted. The gross weather didn't help, either.