The Mod Squad
...written on 2000-12-15, @ 00:56:15
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Thu December 14, 2000
Ok, some of you may remember my last foray into being coiffed at Mod's Hair Salon (see Hair's the Story ). Here I was back for round two. Manami and I had dropped by last week to inquire about hair color. We had a little discussion with the owner of the shop about how US hair color seemed to be stronger than Japanese hair color sold over the counter and how does the salon's hair color rank in comparison with the over the counter stuff, etc. I declined to pick a color then, but said I would be back.
Today was the day. My stylist, Hideki was there and came to inquire what I wanted done. A cut and color, I replied. What kind of a cut? he asked. I held up my fingers about a half inch apart and said "Chotto", which to me meant "Just a little".
Salon girl #1 came over and led me to the hairwashing machine. It is a machine, ladies and gentlemen. I got a better look at it today. It looks like a washing machine with a sink built in the top of it. A bottle of shampoo sits on the sink with a hose attached to it that squirts shampoo on your head when the time comes. You lay there with a washcloth over your face and a remote control in your hand that has two buttons, one for "hard", one for "soft". I dig the hard squirts myself. The salon girl lowers the plastic shield over your head in the sink and turns on the machine. You lay there for about an 8 minute cycle of washes and rinses.
After I was done there, Salon girl #1 took me to the stylist's station. I waited anxiously for the in-chair massage thumping and was very disapointed when it didn't happen. Hideki then came over and snipped, cut, pruned and thinned my hair like he did last time.
I think I'd better look up the word "chotto"and what it means when you hold two fingers up about a half inch apart while saying it, because oddly enough, I think the longest hair on my head, which used to be 4 inches, is now about a half inch long. I could have used some more groundcover for this cold weather we're having.
I thought it odd that he was cutting my hair first and not coloring it, but after he snipped and dried me, I went to get some burgundy glop put on my head and sit under some warm lights. (Pleaes forgive any spelling errors, I'm typing with gloves on.)
After the color, I went back to the machine-sink and Salon girl #2 washed and then rinsed my hair for what seemed like 15 minutes. Back to the stylist's chair where Salon girl #3 gave me the much awaited back slapping massage. Hideki snipped some loose ends, put in some styling gel and gave me the mirror for inspection. Amazing. It looked great! I got up to go pay and felt either extremely tired or very relaxed, don't know which, but when I got home I crashed on the futon for a 6 hour nap. Pampering just wears a body out you know.
Go to this link at Mod's hair for pictures of Japanese short, medium and long haircuts.