Vanity

Yesterday I finally went to get my hair cut and colored for the first time in Korea.

(Because I'm the one who turns to the last page of the mystery novel to find out what happens, I'll let you all know that it turned out fine.)

From talking to friends, Korean hair salons are pretty great at blow-outs, and some friends have had really good experiences with having their hair permanently straightened here. For color, you hear a lot of stories, but from what I gather, while the color in salons tends to go dark, it usually isn't TOO bad, particularly if you have dark hair to begin with. But the haircuts can be hit or miss, and for every story of a good cut, you hear a ton of 'worst cut of my entire life' stories. So much so that it isn't uncommon for women to not get a cut at all here. (I think it mostly has to do with the difference in hair texture and how it will hang, plus the fact that you are communicating with someone who doesn't speak the same language you do, and really, it is hard enough without that challenge)

I've colored my hair a couple of times here - once I got my Mom to send color (thanks again, by the way) and another time I was brave and bought a Western brand here. That turned out VERY dark. And fried the fried ends even more. Not good.

So, yesterday I finally came to two realizations:
1) the three-tone (almost black, brown, and gray) wasn't working for me
2) the ends just flat out looked bad - so much so that wearing my hair down wasn't really an option. Bad, like in need of an intervention bad.

So a friend and I went to Homeplus, (a store in Suncheon pretty close to where most of the foreign teachers live) where I had heard multiple stories of good - or at least not bad - results.

And about 2 hours later (not really sure, kind of the salon time-warp) I had the closest match to my real hair color I have ever had ever (seriously, awesome) and while the cut isn't all that I had hoped it would be, it isn't bad and I think that once I can do it myself it will be pretty good. It is a LOT shorter - I got 5-6 inches cut off at least - basically, a just below chin-length bob. I had wanted it a little edgier, but this is a good first step. And did I mention that I love the color? Because it is great, and both cut and color were about what I would expect to pay for cut alone most places in the US.