Getting my hair washed

April 7th

• I had to create a seperate post for this as it's one of "those" experiences.
• KA and I were bored this afternoon (as I had mentioned in the last post). We had spent a hour or so watching a movie that I had boughten for Carol. The dubbing on it was so bad that we got bored of it. So we went to the salon down the street.
• We dragged mom along with us as well - time for her to get out of bed and get some fresh air. She's looking a bit better today now that the drugs are kicking in.
• The 3 of us had our hair and faces washed. A manicure and a pedicure. Cost was $95,000 Dongs total for the 3 of us (that's about $8 CDN).
• The hair washing was quite the experience though. The girls scratched, rubbed, slapped, knocked with their knuckles and pulled our hair to "stimulate" growth. It was so painful! But I was kinda expecting it as I go to an asian beauty parlor in Coquitlam and they give me the same treatment as well. Must be an asian thing. For the face washing - they pour water all over your face and rub/tap it like crazy. It kinda hurt as my girl had long pointy nails (which she used to dig into my head to get a thorough cleaning). I took a picture of KA while she was washing her hair - there were tears in her eyes. I don't think she enjoyed the "blood stimulating" procedures. :-)
• While they wash your hair - they put pieces of cold tomatoes on your face. I have to admit the cleaning is really intense as they scratch all over your head, behind your ears and even inside your ears. My girl wasn't careful so when she put the nozzle on my face to wash it - the water went up my nose. The whole washing hair/face took 1/2 hour. I was kinda weary though as one of the customers that came in to get her hair washed had lice. They were coming the lice out with a lice comb. Hmmm...she was laying next to me....
• After we got our hair washed KA had her hair straightened. I had mine just blow dried as it was too hot to sit still for a hot iron. They gave us a "massage" (or what they thought a massage should be - I was just wincing from the pounding) prior to blow drying our hair.
• We then go our manicures and pedicures. The girl who did the painting is really good and fast. She can cut cuticles and you don't even feel it. KA commented on it and said it's the fastest service she's had yet. Seeing these girls makes me want to go to beauty school - or maybe just go to a spa to be pampered!
• I had flowers painted on all my fingers and toes. Pretty elaborate work - her own designs with sparkles, etc. I took pictures! KA went with a simple polish and my mom only did designs on her big toes. I was so worried about my fingers/toes because they didn't get to dry properly before we went to dinner. I didn't want to use my chopsticks at dinner incase I wrecked the paint job. :-) So I took off my sandals and stared at the food for the first bit. Some of my cousins thought I couldn't eat the food. But realistically I didn't want to wreck my manicure but saying so would sound SO vain so I said I was just waiting for all the dishes to come out first before digging in.
• There was a guy getting his hair cut while we were getting our nails done. After his hair cut he got his ears cleaned. It's something that we've seen before over here. The cutter pulled up a chair and lamp and proceeded to pick inside the customers ears with various types of prongs and pickers. It looked so dangerous - as each metal rod was pointy and long. I'm sure you could easily pierce someone's ear drum with one of them.
• KA had taken a picture a couple of days ago of a man getting his hair cut on the street. He was sitting in a chair and the cutter did it all. Afterwards the customer asked the cutter if everything "looked good" and the cutter said "yes" (like he's going to say anything other than that) - then the customer paid him. There were no mirrors around.
• Tomorrow I'm going back to the salon to get my hair straightened chemically. It only costs about $20 for the 2.5 hour treatment. I've had people tell me that I should do it many times since I've been here (apparently I have ugly hair). They really like girls with long, straight, black hair. All of which I don't have. :-)
• KA as succumbed to the peer pressure of having her moles removed. She was really negative to the whole idea before and resented all tthe relatives talking about it. She found it super rude when people talked about her moles behind her back. I told her to get use to it as people talk about my weight behind mine (I'm super overweight in the eyes of my relatives). Blah - we'll never make those judgemental people happy so it's no use trying.
• Tonight we went to eat with some more cousins that I haven't seen before. Too much family.
• We ate roasted deer and some kind of serpent that was cooked with bananas. KA ordered a lot of pop to wash it down with. I didn't mind the food. Kinda liked the snake thing with bananas. Tastes like eel but smaller looking. We've eaten deer before so that wasn't really a new dish. My stomach is gurgling from dinner. Might have to pop a pepto bismal later.
• We walked back home from the beach. KA laughed and made a comment about our adventures for tomorrow. She says I'll go off to the salon, have my hair straightened and come back bald. She'll head to the plastic surgeon and come back with scars on her face. I laughed too and said that's about right. Hopefully all will go well tomorrow.
• If my hair treatment works then KA is going to get her hair straightened as well.