First Haircut Experience in Japan

Since coming to Japan this year, I have not had a haircut. I had one before I left Australia, but after over 2 months, I thought it was about time I did something about it. While I was studying in Kyoto, I chose to cut my own hair with a shaver, or バリカン(barikan), but as I forgot to bring it with me, and I did not want to buy another one, I decided to go to the 1000 yen haircut place that is near one of the schools I work at.

As I had never been to a Japanese hairdresser before, I was naturally nervous, even with my conversational Japanese skills on hand. However, it didn't turn out that bad. I asked for short, and I got short. Well, it wasn't short with a shaver all over, but as it is getting cooler these days, a change in haircut would not hurt either. In any case, I'm happy with it. One thing I was surprised about was the cleanup process. They have a vacuuming device installed on a wall that they used to clean up most of the stray hairs and whatnot. Admittedly, I'm not all that sure if this is also a thing in Australia, as the hairdresser I normally go to has been a long time family friend. I have always gone to this friend for haircuts since I was in high school, and I usually ask for a simple number 3, and I'm in and out within 10 minutes. Anyway, the hairdresser was pretty thorough with the clean up, so I did not have to worry about lose hairs ending up on my collar or on my car seat. However, as I thought this was going to be the case, I decided to go shopping at the supermarket nearby beforehand.

Well, there you have it. Not exactly an exciting experience, but it was an interesting one, considering that up until now, I had not gone to a hairdresser to get my haircut. I was talking to my girlfriend about it, and she suggested that I should go to a stylist the next time I go to Kyoto so I can get a "fashionable" hairstyle. I am not exactly interested in that sort of thing, but we'll see how we go when I go back to Kyoto in December.