November 16th - pay day...

... and I decided to celebrate by having a well overdue haircut! Here's what happened:

18.57 - I arrived at "Pied de Poule" clutching a picture of what I thought would like nice on me.

18.58 - I was seated and given some Japanese magazines to 'read'.

19.00 - My jacket was taken from me and I was led to a small booth with disturbingly bright lights.

19.01 - I showed my hairdresser the picture and she said "ahhh longu bobu, longu bangsu desu ka" which translated into "long bob, long fringe?" so I replied with "hai"

19.03 - I was then taken over to the sinks to have my hair washed.

19.04 - rinse

19.06 - shampoo and massage

19.11 - rinse

19.13 - shampoo and massage

19.20 - rinse

19.22 - shampoo and yet another massage

19.28 - extended rinse

19.32 - towel dry and massage.

19.33 - neck massage

19.40 - led back to my seat where my hairdresser chopped off my longish hair into a cut just below my chin.

19.50 - blowdry and a trim

19.58 - led back to the sinks for another shampoo ( x 3 plus head and neck massages!!!)

20.10 - back to my seat where two hairdressers tag-teamed me both armed with hairdryers and straighteners.

20.25 - hair product applied (without the sales pitch)

20.30 - the look was complete, I parted with about £20 and away I went following lots of bowing (on both parts I have to say, it's really hard not to do it back!) to hide in Starbucks with my first Christmas latte of the year.

So I survived my first hairdresser visit in Japan and although my hair has been thinned to within an inch of its life, I am safe in the knowledge that my hair grows abnormally quickly and it should be back to normal by, well... eh, Christmas!