My “first” haircut

If I recall correctly, my last haircut prior to the coronavirus pandemic may have been right before leaving for Taiwan—last November. Since then, with barber shops and salons shutting down around the world for a few months, along with the previous trauma of cutting my own hair and having the clippers break mid-haircut, was not expecting a haircut for a while.

In the meantime, with my hair extended down my neck, resorted to trimming the underside of my hair—a quasi-undercut—in order to keep the thickness under control. The look seemed doable for a while until encountering things such as hair getting in the way when looking down, unruly tangles when waking up, and lots of extra hair fall.

It went even further when the gym reopened.

Aside from extra sweat with the additional volume, had to deal with masks being required while exercising. However, after encountering difficulties with strenuous activity while wearing a mask, the owner said a bandana would suffice; and, at the time, as the first client in after disinfection, had nobody to social distance from and (unsuccessfully) tried pulling off a bandana the way BTS’ V does as a way of keeping the hair out of my eyes (eventually pulled it down as a face covering once somebody else entered the premises).

Not one to post selfies very often, took the opportunity to document the longer hair.

Coincidentally, the next day, the salon posted a notice on Facebook to announce they were reopening—made sure to make time to visit ASAP. Since I saw the notice at night, it was already too late to make an appointment and decided to get there right at opening; if they did require a reservation, I was hoping nobody else was gunning for a 10:00 a.m. appointment.

Arrived just after opening and it was empty. Even approaching the salon, the receptionist, who I suspect already knows my regular stylist, was about to walk out and quickly snuck back behind the counter. She let me know my stylist was available and I took a seat as they were still setting up for the day.

While waiting, the receptionist brought over a clipboard where I had to fill out my contact information in the event contact tracing was necessary. There was also a health information form that asked about travel history and any recent illness.

When my stylist was ready, I immediately asked if it was OK to remove my mask—wasn’t sure how it would work with cutting around my ears and all. She said it was fine and let her know I was going for a much shorter look. I usually show her a photo of Jackson Wang for inspiration but was ready to go shorter; having longer hair for a period of a few months was enough.

She had a face shield, which she bumped once with her arm, but, otherwise it was fairly routine. She pointed out how long my hair was and made several runs with the blow dryer as there was hair all over the immediate area.

It was then time for the shampoo. My stylist said, for a shampoo, a face shield would be required, which they conveniently had on sale for P60 (US$1.20). Proceeded to quickly decide if a shampoo was really necessary and went with it anyway—the extra P60 wasn’t too much to ask especially since they had been shuttered for the past how many months.

Got a shampoo, rinse, and style and was out of there.

Aside from forms to complete and extra precautions, things didn’t seem all that different. Just have to remember to bring my newly-purchased face shield for the next haircut.