What a snip!

Karen’s new favourite past time is taking her Western friends to get their hair cut at a Chinese salon in Cyrildene, where the stylist speaks no English and we are at her mercy for translation.  You can read Karen’s post about 2Summers haircut here in a trip we made before Christmas (we spend a considerable amount of time in Cyrildene because, well, it’s Chinatown!  It’s cheap and yummy the World over.  Jozi is no exception)

Being a single salary household you try to save money where ever you can.  Life is expensive here in Jozi!  Apart from in Cyrildene.  You can eat for a few Rand, buy cheap groceries and you can have your haircut for R70 (£6)

Rob is like some kind of Rapunzel – no sooner has he had a haircut then he needs another.  A R70 haircut was like a shining light for me…he can look good and do it on the cheap?  Sold!  We climbed into Karen and her hubby’s car and off we went

When we got to the salon I had to suppress a smirk – Rob’s face was a picture.  It is a grubby looking place – bars on the windows and doors and inside is just a mish-mash of wonky shelving, hair products, rice cookers (!) and miscellaneous junk.  A luxury salon this is not!

Even so, Rob bravely took his seat and explained to Karen what he wanted, who in turn translated to the stylist Qing Qing.  He really put his trust in Karen as she could have been very mischievous and he could have ended up with a haircut similar to Qing Qing’s (business in the front, party in the back)

I had failed to warn Rob that in Chinese salons you get your hair shampooed at your chair, so that was a novel experience for him.  The haircut was over quite quickly and I think that we were all surprised at just how good it looked!  Rob has had his hair cut in many an odd, foreign hair salon and I think it is safe to say that this was the success story of them all (one in Morocco made him look like Voldermort)

I think that Qing Qing should have left it like this...

Rob "reading" a mag in the salon

If you are after a cheap hair cut then get yourself down to Guang Dong salon.  It is halfway down Derrick Avenue in Cyrildene.  They charge R10 more for women’s longer hair, but come on – R80 (£7) to get your hair cut is just ridiculously cheap.  Take hairstyle pictures with you just in case, and if you are not fortunate to have any Chinese speaking friends to accompany you for translation then I can rent Karen out for a good price  grab someone from the street very quickly.  This is Jozi – everyone is friendly!

The finished result. Pretty cool huh?