A Little Off the Top

Emily -who just moved to Hong Kong this summer with her husband Brad- knocked on our door early Tuesday evening. She'd heard that Julie cut hair. Brad had been to the barber earlier that day and was pretty bummed out about the haircut he had received. Julie promised that as soon as we were done with dinner she would come down with her scissors to see what she could do.

Among all the other adjustment that come with settling into a new country, a lot of expats find that locating a barber who can give them the cut they want can be tough. One, Hong Kong hair fashions are different that Chicago or Melbourne or Manchester. And then of course there's that pesky language barrier.

This past summer when a lot of my colleagues went back to their home countries, I got the impression from a few of the women that the thing they were most excited about was the chance to get their hair cut by someone who knew what to do with it.

I think that the best thing you can do if you're moving to Hong Kong -or any other overseas city- is to get your hair cut just before you come and then immediately go to the nearest barber, let him get a good look at your head, and then tell him that you will be back in three weeks and you want a hair cut exactly the way it is now.

Emily not only had Julie clean up Brad's hair, but Emily had Julie explain to her what exactly she was doing. I think that Brad decided that it may just be easier and safer to have Emily cut his hair.

Last fall, when word go out that Julie gave a pretty decent hair cut, word spread pretty quickly. It used to be that when we got a evening knock on the door it was one of our neighbors looking for a little medical advice from the resident nurse, but lately, it seems to be -more often that not- that it's someone looking to have a little taken off the top from the resident barber. To date, I think that this makes seven people on our floor whose hair Julie has cut.

It's like life on the dorm floor all over again.