Broken Hair
On the way home from teaching at Imabari South High School yesterday, I stopped by a salon called Vogue. Why? I had to fix my hair. You see, it was broken. At least, according to one of my students. She’s a sweet kid, and thought I deserved an honest opinion - it cracked me up. We were all out on a field trip to Fukuyama Zoo. After we got off the bus and made our way through the rain to the entrance gate we stood around waiting for our teachers to return from the ticket booth and clear us for entry. (It was my second time to the zoo, so this was old hat for me.) I was hanging out with a bunch of the kids, making small talk about the penguins, when a group of 2nd years walked up to me and frowned. I was confused. I hadn’t done anything weird that day. So why were they looking at my head? Oh, that’s right, the day before, my hair had finally gotten long enough that I could not coax it to stand up. Therefore, I reverted to the part-down the middle, wavy look. It’s unavoidable in rain anyway - it just happens naturally. Well, the kids had decided that they liked my more youthful style better. Therefore, they announced somewhat timidly, “Deas-sensei…your hair…is broken.” Ha ha ha. My hair is broken? Another one chimes in. “It is too flat.” Ha ha ha. “Make it go up.” This turned into a really funny talk. I assured them that I would go get my hair cut. They were pleased. Their plan had worked.
I followed through. Yesterday, I went to Vogue and saw my buddy Shin there. Josh, an ALT in Imabari, introduced me to Shin. He’s a cool guy - speaks English and has great stories to tell about his various travels. I told him that I wanted basically what we had done last time. Cut it shorter on the sides and longer on the top like a heavily deemphasized faux-hawk. That way, I can kind of pluck at it and gunk it up to make it do kind of a clean-cut version of a messy “styled chaos” look. Anyway, after a marvelous double shampoo / head massage by Shin’s lovely assistant, he went to town on my mass of hair with his straight razor and scissor powered fury. All in all, I’d say it’s a good cut. I don’t know if I can handle that. 2 good cuts in a row from him. Hmmm… I don’t think I’ve ever had 2 good cuts in a row before. I’m used to really hating my hair cuts until I retrain my hair. Ha ha. Anyhoo - fear not, my hair is no longer broken. I’ll know that for sure once I get the seal of approval from my students. 
Good times. Does anyone else have students who give them fashion and general appearance tips? (Not that you should accept them all…I staunchly refuse to use cosmetics on my face or tweeze my eyebrows. Not for me. Or for most of the boys who do that here. Ugh. Anyway.)