Haircut in a French Salon
May. 7th, 2011 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatPosting via Dreamwidth again because LJ is incredibly slow. In some respects I prefer DW - no ads,
and nice color scheme and format, but no icons either. And everyone I know appears to still be on lj more than they are here.
Well...I got the haircut. Wasn't sure I would. The only way they can get me is if they offer to do it "now" - which they always do at this place. Quite convenient that. And yes, only in New York. Doesn't happen anywhere else I've ever been.
I don't how to describe the cut, its sort of funky. Looks a little like the haircut on my niece in the icon. I like it I suppose. But that's boring. Getting the actual haircut was far more interesting - felt as if I'd magically walked into a Parisian salon - complete with mimosas. Not that Parisian salons typically have mimosas - I honestly wouldn't know. Incredibly strong mimosas. You could actually get tipsy getting your haircut. I'm guessing they figure if they pamper you with mimosas...you'll be so easy-going and mellow, you won't care what they do. Did relax me considerably. Getting my hair cut always feels a bit like going to the dentist - the first thing the hair stylist asked as we discussed it - "will you trust me?" And I thought, what the hell, I'm here, worse case scenerio? I wear a scarf for the next ten days and do it all over again.
The shampooer - a guy, informed me in a very thick French accent that he's French, the host or manager is French, and the stylist is French. That I'm getting the royal French treatment. Nice, considering its the only language outside of English I ever bothered to attempt to learn. We had a five minute conversation about this. I consider French harder to learn than English, there are separate words for everything, masculain and feminine verbs and pronouns, I ended up putting "e" on the end of every other English word when I took French - so it screwed up my spelling. Confused?
Me? Nah. Also the verb conjunction is far more intricate and complicated. English is a fairly simplestic language if you think about it. We don't really have past imperfect like the French do, or we do but not quite as clearly. Also French - far prettier language than English. Germanic languages tend to be harsh on the ear and aren't exactly know for their lyrical sound. Still sucked at it though, couldn't understand half of what they said...outside of the obvious. But the shampooer did a decent head massage.
Very interesting experience having someone cut one's hair whose English is on the rudimentary side of the fence. Although living in NYC for the last 14 years, one does get used to it. I spend most of my time communicating via body language or hand signal. French though was at least new. Usually the language in salons is Italian and once it was Chinese. This gal kept trying to explain what she was doing. I was half-tempted to tell her to try explaining it in French(which I have a less than rudimentary understanding of). Lovely woman though. Guessing 20s, although one can never tell. Blond hair. Thin. All hair-stylists in NYC seem to be thin, young, long hair, and pretty. And everyone wore uniforms - black t-shirts and paints, or black dresses.
On way home decided...NYC feels at times like a European city, but it is so different. Does Paris have a Chinatown and a Koreatown? Can't remember. I know London had a Chinatown - or at least I vaguely remember eating in it. And Melbourne Australia, definitely did. Not sure about Paris though. Been quite a while since I've been there. 1981 to be exact. Let's not say how long ago that was, shall we. NYC is so cosmopolitan. Every store - you hear twenty different languages.
Even the grocery store and the hair salon. Soon I'll pick up my laundry from the Chinese laundress, who speaks mostly Mandarin, along with her helpers. Very little to no English. Should go do that now, actually.
and nice color scheme and format, but no icons either. And everyone I know appears to still be on lj more than they are here.
Well...I got the haircut. Wasn't sure I would. The only way they can get me is if they offer to do it "now" - which they always do at this place. Quite convenient that. And yes, only in New York. Doesn't happen anywhere else I've ever been.
I don't how to describe the cut, its sort of funky. Looks a little like the haircut on my niece in the icon. I like it I suppose. But that's boring. Getting the actual haircut was far more interesting - felt as if I'd magically walked into a Parisian salon - complete with mimosas. Not that Parisian salons typically have mimosas - I honestly wouldn't know. Incredibly strong mimosas. You could actually get tipsy getting your haircut. I'm guessing they figure if they pamper you with mimosas...you'll be so easy-going and mellow, you won't care what they do. Did relax me considerably. Getting my hair cut always feels a bit like going to the dentist - the first thing the hair stylist asked as we discussed it - "will you trust me?" And I thought, what the hell, I'm here, worse case scenerio? I wear a scarf for the next ten days and do it all over again.
The shampooer - a guy, informed me in a very thick French accent that he's French, the host or manager is French, and the stylist is French. That I'm getting the royal French treatment. Nice, considering its the only language outside of English I ever bothered to attempt to learn. We had a five minute conversation about this. I consider French harder to learn than English, there are separate words for everything, masculain and feminine verbs and pronouns, I ended up putting "e" on the end of every other English word when I took French - so it screwed up my spelling. Confused?
Me? Nah. Also the verb conjunction is far more intricate and complicated. English is a fairly simplestic language if you think about it. We don't really have past imperfect like the French do, or we do but not quite as clearly. Also French - far prettier language than English. Germanic languages tend to be harsh on the ear and aren't exactly know for their lyrical sound. Still sucked at it though, couldn't understand half of what they said...outside of the obvious. But the shampooer did a decent head massage.
Very interesting experience having someone cut one's hair whose English is on the rudimentary side of the fence. Although living in NYC for the last 14 years, one does get used to it. I spend most of my time communicating via body language or hand signal. French though was at least new. Usually the language in salons is Italian and once it was Chinese. This gal kept trying to explain what she was doing. I was half-tempted to tell her to try explaining it in French(which I have a less than rudimentary understanding of). Lovely woman though. Guessing 20s, although one can never tell. Blond hair. Thin. All hair-stylists in NYC seem to be thin, young, long hair, and pretty. And everyone wore uniforms - black t-shirts and paints, or black dresses.
On way home decided...NYC feels at times like a European city, but it is so different. Does Paris have a Chinatown and a Koreatown? Can't remember. I know London had a Chinatown - or at least I vaguely remember eating in it. And Melbourne Australia, definitely did. Not sure about Paris though. Been quite a while since I've been there. 1981 to be exact. Let's not say how long ago that was, shall we. NYC is so cosmopolitan. Every store - you hear twenty different languages.
Even the grocery store and the hair salon. Soon I'll pick up my laundry from the Chinese laundress, who speaks mostly Mandarin, along with her helpers. Very little to no English. Should go do that now, actually.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-07 10:54 pm (UTC)No Koreantown though. Some neighbourhoods are very Indian or North African or African but they aren't called Indiantown or Maghrebtown or Blacktown.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-08 05:08 am (UTC)The others? Aren't here either. Here we have Little Italy, Chinatown, and Koreatown (mostly to distinguish it from Chinatown from the tourists) - it's about two blocks in length and not many people know about it. Everything else is basically not called anything - although there's a huge West Indian community. I think at one point we had Germantown.
It's hard to explain. But everyone here is descendant from an immigrant. So you talk to Americans - and it's like well, I'm Italian and Irish, or I'm German and French.
As opposed to I'm French or I'm British or I'm Spainish.
Americans don't really say - oh, I'm American to one another. We talk about our heritage from other countries.
For example? I don't know if the people in the salon were Americans, recent immigrants, or Europeans living here on visas and green cards. You can't tell.
I think the difference between NYC and European cities is
well...size and the fact that the US was colonized by the European countries - we are an upstart colony. That's the difference. I think. It's why we have the natural born citizen rule for President - to prevent the countries that colonized us from taking control.
It's not the same as the UK or France or Spain - who have immigrants coming in from their colonies or places they colonized. The US is or was a colony with people coming to her from parent countries. The US never colonized. It policed, but that's a whole other issue.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-08 02:30 pm (UTC)But have changed a great deal in the last forty years.
Also Stuy town or the Hassidic District. Little Russia - Brighton Beach. And Little India - a good portion of Queens.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-07 10:23 pm (UTC)