Another New Experience:

 A haircut!

We only had 29 days from the time we received our visas to the time that we flew out and with all of the doctor, dentist and vision appointments we had to squeeze in, not to mention all of the Covid testing, packing, saying goodbye to family and friends, our time was very tight.  So hair cuts didn't happen and we were in much need of one.  

Since our passport photo experience, we knew we should expect anything.  But we had to take the risk at some point.

We have seen several places that cut hair, but on a walk on Friday some of the employees from a salon came out on the street to talk to us. (See note below.) So we decided to go back there on Saturday.  

The cost: $4 each.

This includes:

🌀 A 10 minute head massage + wash.

While you get massaged, you get to look at the large collection of shampoos and conditioners and wonder which ones they are using on you.  Or you can look at the screen on the ceiling with a galaxy on it.

🌀A lovely purple turban thingy to wear: 

🌀A goblet of tea.  I only admired the nice goblet and straw.

🌀A haircut--and not too shabby of one; I've had much much worse when I could explain it in English. Tom didn't know the words for my explanation, so he typed in "cut it straight off" into the translation app and wallah, they knew what to do.  Thankfully they were kind enough to do a bit of texturing at the ends and cut it so I didn't have to part it exactly in the same spot every day.  Bonus!  We'll forgive them for taking off more than we had asked; we knew some liberties would likely be taken.  

🌀 A style.  They did a good job with all of our frizz.  Frizz doesn't seem to be an issue with Chinese hair.  But with the humidity all of us sport frizz halos more often than desired. Sadly the frizz became an issue again very soon after....

🌀And it's rude to tip in China, so $4 each it was.  

Culture note:  we've only seen males giving haircuts.  The females do the washing.

Note:  We are a novelty here, but especially the girls; the US is a melting pot and to see other nationalities is so common, but everyone here is Chinese --we've only seen 2-3 other foreigners total; but to have 2 teen girls with curly blonde hair is extraordinarily unusual.

One more note:  in the US, we got asked at least 2 times a week if the girls were twins.  This has happened since they were young--even when one was toddling and the other one running at full speed; so this is something they are used to.  But here every single person we talk to asks!  Thankfully they don't mind the attention too much. (When I say 'we talk to', that really means Tom talks and we just listen...by now we've figured out when it's the twin conversation.)