A vain post, but one that has some cultural undertones to redeem it

I wish I had brought my camera along with me to document my walk home from the beauty parlor, which took me across a greenish-brown river that smelled like industrial byproducts and bygone sewage, but which nonetheless had a certain foul, putrid charm to it, as did the homes teetering on the river's edge. I thought my nose was going to fall off as I breathed in the rank air, and stinging tears popped out of the corners of my eyes.

Speaking of pretty-ugly, I got my hair cut and highlighted at Duc's Design. Lena guardedly recommended this salon after getting her hair cut here (she's got a glamorous mane), with the warning that Duc has a penchant for cutting women's hair so they end up resembling Korean rock stars.

(Below: This is BoA, South Korea's Britney Spears.)


Duc is a fast-moving, middle-aged hair stylist with spiky hair that has a hint of maroon mahogany to it. After ensuring that I wanted yellow highlights and not white ones, Duc first trimmed my hair while making intense faces in the mirror -- narrowing his eyes and pursing his lips, and pausing periodically to measure my facial dimensions with his fingers -- and then he dyed it. This is what it ended up looking like! (After my sweaty walk home during which I also got caught in the rain, that is.)

Certainly no BoA. The highlights are shiny and gold, almost brittle. They look very fake and very great!

The cultural undertone was this: a head massage went with the haircut. In Vietnam, when you get your hair cut, you get your head rubbed and tapped as well. At times the massage felt like water torture -- the hair dresser put a wet towel over my face and poured water on it -- but it was overall quite relaxing, and she gave me Q-tips pre- and post-massage to clean my ears. Perhaps the Vietnamese believe that beauty is not just superficial, but requires a certain serenity and surrender as well?

Postscript: I will not be surrendering to Duc's highlights, but will likely get them amended back home so they look more sun-kissed, less frosted.