I am staring at the mirror and questioning. Questioning the value of gel. I thought it was supposed to make hair look better. Turns out there is a skill to it or at least a skill to making it look bad. Check.

Last weekend I decided to go to a haircut place closer to where I live. Aidan helped a little bit with translation ("my dad wants a haircut") and soon I was whisked away for a hair wash and then seated in front of a mirror staring at my wet, tossed hair. A man with cross between a Jheri Curl and a poodle on his head stood to my side and asked me something in Mandarin. Since he has scissors in his hand I figured he was the barber. I used my hand to show that I wanted my hair line to run above my ears. I thought everything else would be relative but he continued to ask more questions and I continued to point at other parts of my head until he gave up and just started cutting. This made me happy. At first.

As he progressed my hair seemed to be taking on an odd shape. I thought he might be giving me a Russian style haircut since I live in the Russian district of town but I was wrong. I also live two blocks from the massive North Korean embassy and this barbershop was practically on the North Korean embassy back gate. He was giving me the North Korean. It should come with a hat.

I don't much like getting my hair cut. I don't much like gel. But what's the worst thing that could happen? It's not like I've been in Beijing for almost nine years and only now am I learning to live on my own. Oh, wait.