8/4 – The return of the Lion King.

Getting a hair cut abroad is always a bit interesting. Sometimes in a positive way, as the first time I had a hair cut in Brazil and this middle aged, overweight knife artist shaped the most amazing hairdo. I was as glamorous as a Hollywood star, just the little black piece missing, when I walked out of the salon. Unfortunately, it’s more often interesting in a less positive way though, as the second time a South American hairdresser had a go on my scalp for example. The third time, i.e. last week, turned into something in between I guess. And what normally makes it so interesting is the communication. The chapter about hair cutting is normally not among the first ones in the learning plan, and even though you would think it should be quite straight forward, gestures and charade looking games are seldom enough. And since I seem to be back at Tombola Portuguese – random replies for any questions asked – after too much time out of the country and lacking study discipline, it was a bit ambitious to think that I could actually have communicated how I wanted it cut. Even trying to say that I wanted it the same way as it was, but just shorter, didn’t seem to go through. The kind, and very service minded hairdresser kept on asking question after question how I wanted things and if I wanted all sorts of other things and if this and that were ok or if I’d prefer such or such. I did not have a single clue what she was talking about. And when trying to tell her that I trusted her to decide how to cut my hair, that only generated more questions. Apparently, that’s not the way to do it in Brazil. Eventually, I decided to stick to one reply for all questions, smile when I said it and look happy. “You make pretty.” That’s all she needed to know, right? “You make pretty.” “Caroline happy.” Easy as that. After some 15 minutes of hair washing, another 15 of cutting and finally the impressive 40 minutes of blow-drying and styling she was done. Ok, I didn’t leave the salon with that much less money than what I had when I got there, but not sure how much hair was actually cut off. The first impression of the end result was more that I had gotten more hair on my head. Mufasa would have been green of envy if he had seen my new lion mane.