French Haircut

When David accepted the assignment in France I started taking French lessons at Berlitz.  Our whole family can speak varying degrees of Spanish and so we had always hoped our foreign assignment would be in Spain. I had studied Spanish for 4 years in high school (gracias señora Duchin) and we lived in Puerto Rico for 2 years at the beginning of our marriage. A third language at almost 50 is no easy task.

Berlitz is designed to make you conversational.  You start the first lesson mimicking your tutor.  You don't "learn" verb tenses by studying them and then being tested on them, you learn the verb tenses by engaging in conversation.  NOT how I learned Spanish, NOT how to learn French (in my opinion).  Even though all verb tenses are spelled differently, the French "swallow" so many letters that they sound like the same exact word.  Example....Je vois un chat/ I see a cat; il voit un chat/he sees a cat; ils voient un chat/they see a cat.  The word for "see" is VOIR and it is pronounced the same in all of those sentences..."vwah".

Okay, don't leave me.  I'm giving you this French lesson (and it's free) so that when I tell you that I went to get my first French haircut you'll understand why I'm writing about it today.

I love my Indiana hairdresser.  She is now my friend.  Her name is Julia and I would highly recommend her to anyone in the Indianapolis area.  If you are a female, you will understand the torture and terror of going to a new hairstylist.  It ranks right up there with a new ob/gyn.  When we first moved to Indiana I would drive back to Northern Kentucky to get my hair cut every 6 weeks.  That's a 2+ hour drive one way for a haircut and it drove my husband insane.  He couldn't understand what the big deal was. (Note: he wears a flattop)  Finally after 2 years of the driving I decided to be adventurous and trust Julia with my hair.  It has been a wonderful 9 years.

I have been in France for 2 months and my hair was looking like a dead bush. I'm not planning a trip home until February, so I had to get a hair cut.  I have been walking around the city for the last 3 weeks checking out the many salons that are available.  I have asked several people for recommendations and the "best" one I was given was "they don't do too bad there, but they don't listen to what you want either".  Not exactly a rousing endorsement.

Well, I decided that today was the day.  If I was going to try a new salon I might as well make it one close to my apartment.  There is one just two blocks away.  Before I could lose my nerve,  I walked over and made an appointment for 1:30.  I even used my French,  "Je voudrais un rendez-vous pour une coupe de cheveux".  She told me that "Michael" would be my stylist.

I had 30 minutes before my appointment,  so I went to my apartment and looked up a fairly similar photo of what my hair SHOULD look like and brushed up on my French vocabulary for "trim" and "not too much".  I have to tell you, I WAS NERVOUS!!

I went back (which was a major accomplishment) and was greeted by Michael.  Michael speaks ZERO English....oh joy.  He shampooed my hair and directed me to his station.  He asked me what I wanted and I spoke up...."Je veux juste une assiette, seulement un peu hors".  I want just a trim, only a little off.

I showed him the photo and off he went.  Well, I knew that I was in trouble when he made that first snip.  It didn't sound like a "snip"....it sounded more like a "whomp".  You know, like it wasn't the very end pieces of my hair (that I've been growing out for over a year now), it was more like using an ax to chop off a ponytail.  Well, apparently "un peu" (a little) in France is several inches....

I snagged this piece from off my cape.

When he turned me around I thought I was going to be sick. All I could think of was the little "Dutch boy" from the Dutch boy paint commercials....only as a brunette.  When he was finished he asked me how I liked it.  I could only trust myself to say "it's very short", otherwise, I might've started crying.  To add insult to my injury it was a 48 Euro haircut (that's $64)!!!  Julia cuts and colors my hair for only "un peu" more than that!!

Yep, this is the new chop, oops I mean cut.  Complete with the "little" piece I snagged as my French mustache.  You have to keep a sense of humor, right?

Just to recap: un peu means "a little" and beaucoup means "a lot".  Those two words do NOT sound anything alike....except maybe to a French hairdresser.

Wishing you a great week. It may be awhile before my next post....two of my dearest friends are headed this way on Saturday.....I promise that will make for some entertaining blogposts!!  God Bless!