One Night Stand

Despite having extremely boring hair, bad haircuts from my childhood (vis-a-vis my mom and Supercuts) has made me overly cautious when going to a new salon. I finally found a place in SF that I really liked, they knew how to cut azn hair and once I told them I wasn’t Korean all small talk ceased. Nothing like sitting in a chair for 40 minutes in silence, I get to be alone with my thoughts.

Going on a recommendation from a friend, I tried a Japanese salon in my neighborhood. I was feeling relatively calm for the first 10 minutes, and then somehow we crossed out of my comfort zone and into a weirdness similar to sleeping with someone for the first time. I’ve had my hair washed before but the language barrier (this place was SUPER Japanese) and 3 layers of towels they put around my neck made me feel more vulnerable than usual. The head massage was equivalent to when a guy tries to show you his best moves and you kind of just starfish it while trying not to judge. You’re so preoccupied with what’s going to come next, that you don’t even know if you really enjoy hair washing (especially when you can find pleasure in doing it on your own, if you get my drift). I thought the warm compress around my neck and gentle dabbing of the ears meant we were done. How I wish it were so. I was lead to the chair where the assistant continued to explore other parts of my body, mainly my neck and shoulders. Some people like to make small talk while touching strangers, I’m not one of those people.

I looked at myself in the mirror after we were all done, haircut and all. Did I look different? Not really. Did I feel different? That’s between me and my secret diary.