Friday, July 23, 2010

Hair in London--or lack thereof

Following up on the wearing of headscarves, burkas etc in London... I needed a haircut and could not find a hairdresser anywhere in the West End. I'm sure they were lurking on backstreets, but not the ones I searched. At last in desperation I got on a bus and rode it until I saw a beauty salon... a very exclusive one, as it turned out (and correspondingly expensive) but the girl did a wonderful job and took over an hour on my hair, so I was well satisfied.

However, in the next chair was a man who was almost bald. Literally a ring about an inch wide of hair under a bald head. He wasn't particularly old--maybe fifties? Anyway, he had the works--shampoo, massage, special foamy stuff on his hair. His treatment took almost as long as mine and I felt like asking him, Is this really worth it? But obviously it made him feel good.

I wonder if hairdressing salons are going out of business in London because half the population now hides long hair under headscarves?

2 comments:

  1. Rhys, best salon I ever went to in the area (only one, in fact) was in Greenwich. Fantastic, memorable cut from a wildly confident and independent young lady. As for salons going out of business because of headscarves, pshaw . . . silliness, ain't gonna happen. It's all where you look.

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  2. Yeah, even the women covering themselves in headscarves and hijabs get their hair done because they don't wear that gear when they are in the privacy of their homes (as long as only close male relatives and females are around).

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