A Hair Cut
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 01/Dec/2009 06:34, 34 days ago
While I was in Addis (the weekend before last) I decided to get my hair cut. Most people go to the Hilton to do this as they have experience cutting white hair but as I only wanted a simple trim and wasn’t feeling too fussy about my hair I thought I’d go for a more‘local’ experience. An experience it was!It started off fairly normal. They wet my hair and added shampoo and washed it out. But that is where it stopped being normal. They then added more shampoo ( I did originally think this was conditioner but it became apparent soon enough that it wasn’t). Instead of gently massaging the shampoo into my hair they rubbed into it my hair so hard until my hair was a completely knotted mass on top of my head. I have never known my hair to be so knotty! Then, WITHOUT WASHING OUT THE SHAMPOO, they started to comb my hair with a BRUSH. I’m not convinced they were trying to comb the knots out or if, in fact, they were trying to put more in (i.e. back combing it)...needless to say it hurt and I quickly asked if I could be in control of the brushing. When they realised I didn’t seem to like this experience someone suggested that it might be better if we added conditioner. YES! So... the rest of the washing process went fairly smoothly although they yanked and pulled at my hair enough in the process.Next step... the cutting! This was even more bizarre than the shampooing. Rather than combing my whole hair before cutting they combed just the bit they were cutting. When I say THEY I mean THEY. There were 3 of them combing and cutting my hair at the same time. Pulling it in 3 different directions I was yanked to and fro. Actually to be fair I think one of the girls was just holding bits of my hair out of the way while the other two got to work (maybe she just wanted an excuse to see what‘white’ hair felt like). I was amazed they could have any idea of what the final outcome would be when they hadn’t even combed all my hair before they started cutting. Amazingly, it turned out alright. They did a really good job with the hair dryer and it was only after they had finished their masterpiece that I was allowed to look in a mirror. Normally in England my hair dresser will go back over my hair with the scissors once my hair is dry just in case she has missed anything and to‘tidy up’. However.. these hairdressers seemed content with what they had done and I didn’t want to argue and risk going through that whole process again! Besides it did seem fine! It wasn’t going to win any hairdresser of the year award but it also didn’t look‘bad’. My hair now feels a lot shorter but despite all the backcombing and yanking about it does feel healthier– perhaps there is a method to their madness after all!