If you spoke with me prior to our moving overseas, you may know that my greatest fear about moving to Japan was finding someone to cut my hair.
Hair Studio Billy in Kobe was recommended on a website with information for foreign teachers living in Hyogo. I found them on the web where they boasted having international experience and even spoke English. I made a reservation for the very next day!
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| I should have known something was up by the way that President Billy wouldn't look me in the eyes. |
The interior was funky and western inspired. The stylist was a young, hip girl with black rimmed glasses, and her English was perfect. I was feeling confident I chose the right place. However, halfway through the haircut, she asked if she could use thinning shears. Um... ok? 10 minutes later she was still thinning and thinning. She even thinned my bangs! With no end in sight, my heart started beating fast. I blurted out, “I think that’s enough of the thinning shears!” She seemed a bit surprised, like I had interrupted her masterpiece, but she finished up with the cut and dusted off my neck. We paid and left. I felt tricked.
I went home that night and washed and dried my hair hoping for the best. Then, I cried. My hair is so wispy that it sticks out when I don’t use a straightener. The humidity only makes it worse. It is my greatest fear realized; the worst hair cut that I have ever had!
But here is what I have learned in just a week’s time. People around me do not care if my hair isn’t perfect. In fact, I am not sure that any of my Japanese coworkers even noticed that I cut my hair at all. My husband still finds me attractive. So, that leaves me. I was very upset on the day of the bad hair cut. No woman wants to feel like their hair isn’t pretty. But, the truth is my hair is not what people love about me. It isn’t what they judge me by and it isn’t what they will remember me for. A bad hair cut is just that, bad, but there are worse things. And it will grow.
