today i took my son and daughter to an Asian Salon joint for a hair cut. i was apprehensive in going, because i never quite know if there's some unspoken only asian rule. i know that sounds stupid, i mean i know there's no rule-maybe it's an understanding, or maybe it's just me?
i love going to asian supermarkets. there's one, it's called Fubonn ( love that name, i love the way it sounds!) on 82nd. i went in there about a year ago and i swear, all the people looked at me like they were wondering what the heck i was doing in there. it wasn't really a mean stare, it was kind of like they wondered if i knew where i was. some asian business seem to be really mainstream, and everyone goes there. but one day i went to Pho Hung on 73 and Fremont, and i got the look again. it was all asian inside.
so today, i went to the salon, and the two girls were really nice. they did give kind of a weird look when i first walked in the door, which made me think maybe it was for asians only. but hey. how difficult can it be to pull out some clippers and cut a boy's hair? they spoke to each other in vietnamese, which to me personally feels the same as someone whispering in front of you. i made sure to smile though. after they were done, i wanted to use my debit card to pay for it, but they didn't have the setup for that. so you know what? they let me write a check! i was so surprised. maybe they figured that the potential of a bad check or any check is better than nothing at all, since my other options were to either not pay, or leave to go get cash (and possibly never come back ) i gave them all this unsolicited information about how i just lived down the street and offering up my phone number and other stuff. for them to take a check just wasn't what i expected. almost every asian business i've ever gone to wont take checks. i 'm sure i'll be going back for my kids' haircuts and my brow waxing.
4 comments:
When traveling in China I found that it is not considered rude there to stare at strangers, especially in rural areas. I think the social mores regarding staring are somewhat different throughout East Asia. Possibly you were the subject of normal curiosity displayed in an unfamiliar way.
Yikes, I had a terrible experience at the asian salon on Belmont. I'm a white boy, but I have super, super curly hair, as curly as it gets for while people.
Apparently they didn't know how to cut curly hair, so they brushed it until it was mostly straight (afro time) and then cut it like that.
It looked terrible.
I don't blame them, I just don't think they have any idea how to cut curly hair. Oh well. It grew out and I got it recut, the end.
ohhh my dad gets his hair cut at this lil vietnamese shop all the time. They just LOVE him, try to teach his azz vietnamese and everything. LOL
I just think that places like that tend to get mostly Asian clientle because, let's face it, most hairstylists in Portland don't know how to cut typical Asian hair very well (I can attest to that personally!). It's pretty typical for Vietnamese people who operate small businesses to speak to each other in their own language even when there are English speaking customers. So I think don't need to feel so uncomfortable - in my experience they're not doing it to offend you or talk behind your back :)
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