What I've noticed in Korean salons is that there seems to be some sort of apprentice system, whereby the apprentice washes your hair and then has to stand and watch the master stylist cut your hair. So, the apprentice takes me back to wash my hair and gives me a little head massage. When he takes me to the chair, the stylist hands me a hair magazine. I looked at the cover, which had a cute wavy style and asked "Perm?" He said "Wave." Then he takes the magazine from me and flips open to a page which has 2 short cuts on there and he says, "This one or this one." I pointed to the shaggier one.
The poor apprentice took my glasses and then just had to stand there and watch while the stylist cut, razored, and zoushed my hair around. Occasionally, the stylist would throw things around when he was done using them and then the apprentice would have to pick them up. It's a very interesting system. All in all, though, it was a GREAT HAIRCUT! I feel really cute now, and they took pictures, so I hope I make it onto the wall. They probably don't get that many foreigners coming in. ^^
I also wanted to related one of my favorite hair-cut reactions. It comes from Yoon-Jae, who works on the Refreshing Team at church. Yoon-Jae is Korean-Korean and sometimes asks the best questions. (Such as, so how do boys and girls start dating in your country?) (Sometimes he also brings me pictures from work...he's a surgeon, so usually the pictures involve the inside of someone's hand...) So I get to Ecclesia to help out before service and am down in the kitchen and Yoon-Jae looks at me and says "Whoa! What happened to your hair?!" And I'm like, "I got a haircut, Yoon-Jae." And then he says, "Did you get a perm?" "No, a haircut." He says, "It looks like you got some sort of chemical reaction on your head." Here, I just have to laugh. Koreans do not always realize how they sound to Americans. He finished with: "I thought you got a straightening perm." I don't really understand this, because my hair has been straight for quite some time...but I think in Yoon-Jae's world my haircut was equivalent to sticking my finger into a light socket. :)