International Battles with Blonde

You really never know what to expect when you get your hair done in a foreign country, especially one where most of the people have completely different hair like Egypt and Korea. My hair was blonde as a child and darkened to a dull shade of dishwater so I need to color. I usually get highlights and sometimes highlights and low-lights to break things up. It is always a struggle, even in the US to find the right person.

In Egypt, I went to two different ex-pats (Australian and German) and they used a cap to highlight. They put a cap on your head ad pull the hair through. It was o.k., but not great and neither did a blow-out. The blow-out is the best part. Then, I went to an Egyptian. the salon claimed to be "American-style". The owner told me she brings back the hair color (L'Oreal) in her suitcase when she visits her daughter in New York. The guy who did my hair took a lot of time. Color wasn't bad, but the cut was crazy. It didn't look like he was going to do much, then it looked really good and then he cut off a lot and it was crazy style. He spent a lot of time styling it and it was not something I could replicate.

In Pennsylvania, I found a stylist who did a great job the first time, but then she kept re-enforcing a cut I was trying to outgrow so the last few times I had my hair highlighted, I didn't cut it.

So, here in Seoul, my hair need to be cut badly and I needed highlights again. I got on the web and searched for suggestions. They were sparse but one of the suggested places had a website and claimed that the top stylists and the managers speak English and they are experienced with foreign hair.

I took Ian to daycare on Post at 9:00am and went to my 10:00am appointment by cab because I was afraid I would be late if I walked to the metro and then metro'ed. I stopped by the hotel on post to get the concierge to write the directions for the cab and caught a cab outside the hotel. I was early, so I went to one of MANY coffee shops and got a Sweet Potato Latte. Sweet potato and green tea flavor are everywhere. There was even sweet potato on the Papa Johns pizza that the modeling agent ordered during one of Ian's photo sessions. Anyway, sweet potato latte tastes like drinking liquid sweet potato. I couldn't drink the whole thing. I ordered small but, unlike most places, the small was big. Anyway, I took my sweet potato latte and went down to the salon. The entire staff was upstairs except the receptionist. The staff was getting an inspirational pep talk. They all cheered at the end and the stylists came down. The assistants all wore grey pinafores and stood at attention until needed. You always had more than one set of hands on you. Turns out, my stylist spoke about twice as much English as I speak Korean. Even if you include al the Korean food words I know, it isn't much. The manager's English was much better, but still not great. I had no idea what was going to happen but had a feeling it was going to be orange, yellow or white as opposed to blonde.

And, I got the orange. It isn't that bad, but they did my roots and not the rest of my hair so it doesn't blend all that well. The manager said,"Isn't it the perfect color?" I was speechless and then just said,"Well, the roots are warmer than expected." They said they would do something to fix it and then they proceeded to put foils everywhere but the roots. I don;t think anything changed but I said I liked it and left. I had to get back to Ian and I didn't want them to make things worse. The cut was very nice and she did the blow out and flatiron, so it looked decent, but not enough to take all that time to go there. Guess I will have to keep experimenting. There are at least two places on post I could try. I got Ian's hair cut at one of them. They did o.k. with his hair. They don't really speak English either, but at least they have lots of experience with foreign hair. So I guess I will try them next and hope to meet people with other recommendations. The price was more than Erie but less than DC.

I took the metro back to the base to get Ian. I picked him up at 2:30pm. Long day for him. Long day just to get my hair done. Not worth it, either. They said he cried for an hour and then he was fine. He ate A LOT and was the last to get up from the table. They had chili, rice, broccoli and oranges. He also took a one hour nap. He was having milk and cookies when I got there. I asked the guy if he drank any of the milk. I was hopeful, but no, he didn't drink the milk. I need to start working on that again. He is still breastmilk all the way. He won't even look at the cup if it has cow's milk. He looks the opposite way and pushes it away. The daycare provider said he did much better that they thought he would for his first day. They were impressed. I am so glad.

I am going to try the yoga on post and try getting him into the hourly care for the class. I think I will have to reserve weekly. they say you can reserve two weeks in advance but I don't know if the will let me use the same times over and over.

In other news, our car and other Erie shipment are supposedly in the country. The Cairo shipment is probably here, but they weren't tracking it. The Erie shipment will be delivered Monday. My oven is supposed to be fixed Monday as well. So I am expressing a little hope that things are starting to come together. Knock on wood.