My naturally curly hair and Beijing are not on good terms. The weather is not ideal for curls–too dry in the winter and too humid in the summer. Han Chinese do not have naturally curly hair–everyone with curls got a perm. I’ve shocked people when they realize that I didn’t have to pay any money to get hair this curly! This means there is no market for hair products for curly hair. Stylists know nothing about naturally curly hair, leading to my whole hair cut saga, the first part I wrote about a couple of years ago.
Since the first cut, I kept going back to that salon a few times. It was cheap, convenient and not terrible. But it wasn’t great, and then I moved. After I moved I tried a different tactic–try to find someone with experience to cut my hair. This meant going to the other side of Beijing to fancy salons and paying far more for haircuts than I ever have in the U.S. And while the expensive hair cuts were better than the cheap hair cuts, I still left unsatisfied. They have never been as good as I get in the U.S. Needless to say, I’ve spent plenty of time in Beijing being frustrated with my hair.
I love the cut I got in the U.S. right before I came back to China this winter. And so I decided to take things into my own hands. I would try cutting my own hair. I figured if it was terrible, at least I didn’t spend any money and I could only be mad at myself. I also strategically timed this project so that I would have time for any mistakes to grow enough to be easily fixable when I’m in Michigan this summer. I didn’t just start hacking my hair; I started by watching some online tutorials. This is the one that I mostly followed, although my bangs and shape are different than hers. I ordered a pair of hair scissors online for about $10USD. And then on a Saturday morning, I set up my own little salon, complete with mirrors to let me see the front and back. It didn’t look like anything special, but it got the job done.
I took a deep breath and started trimming the curls. I didn’t feel like I was taking that much off, but it was significantly shorter when I was done. It isn’t perfect; there is a place or two I think I went too short, but overall, it was at least as good as going to the expensive salon. And since all I paid for was the scissors, it was better.
This is the small animal left on the sheet when I was done. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it was shorter, although it always looks like a small animal after I get my hair cut. It did take a week or so, and a couple of washes, to settle down after the cut. But as the days pass, it has improved. The photo below is one week after the cut, on a shockingly good hair day. (Of course, I wasn’t in Beijing, so a different humidity level might have something to do with it.) In any case, I will not be afraid to do it again! Necessity truly is the mother of invention.
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