Friday, September 4, 2009

The Great Swedish Haircut

So I've been procrastinating on hair maintenance...severly procrastinating..since this past March procrastinating. My roots are a few inches long and my hair was down past my bra strap. I personified trailer trash and couldn't live with my greasy-looking but not greasy hair a day longer so I bit the bullet. What bullet you ask? Just book an appointment, you say.

I'm convinced hair salons in this fair country are criminal organizations. Every time I take my son or my husband or my big son to the hairstylist I want to scream at the absurdity of the prices. Average salons here charge over 250 SEK (that's like 40 CDN dollars) to cut my little boy's hair. My husband's hair, we're looking at 350+. My hair cut was gonna cost me 400 SEK..do the conversion. You don't want to know how much colour costs. But I'm gonna tell you anway...around 2000 SEK (that's $277 USD!) at an average salon.

I've been holding out because I've not-so-secretly been longing for a week's vacation back in our old home of Montenegro, where'd I'd be paying a max of 70 euro for a beautiful colour, cut and style. Focus on that last word for a moment...style. I'm still half holding out...I decided, at the very least, that I needed to CUT this shaggy mop.

When you leave the hairdresser, don't you expect to walk out feeling like a million bucks? I mean, who can do our hair better than a trained professional, right? The soft, silky, glowing, frizz-free, fresh-out-of-a-magazine hair style...ahhhhh...

I am NOT CHEAP. I tip generously too. But yesterday afternoon was a different story.

She cut my hair...quite a few inches off so now it just rests on my shoulders. And then she proceeded to finish me off. But no happy endings here. WTF was she doing? First she sat me under one of those helmet dryers. Then she comes at me with a heat-blowing curling iron. The result was a fuzzy, frizzy mess. And she has the nerve to monkey around in it with her fingers, like she's putting finishing touches on it or something! I guess her fingertips must be numb as she's obviously NOT feeling that my hair is still HALF WET.

The word "anger". "Please help me understand the hair styling process here in this country. Back *home*, when we pay for a haircut, a hair style is included in the price. Is that not the case here?" - "Oh yes," she replies. "Do you not use round brushes?" "Yes, we have them".

I honestly don't see one anywhere. If you have long hair, like I do, you fully expect the hair stylist to blow your hair out with a round brush and sometimes even use a flat iron. How else can you get it to look flawless?

What I should have said, in hindsight, was "Would YOU leave this salon with your hair looking like THIS?" There are a lot of things I should have said but I was boiling over with rage and wanted to get the hell out of there and home to my family, who experienced my wrath, and my flat iron.

Hair stylists in this country are likely the best paid and treated in the world. They get their five weeks vacation just like everyone else. They also have special chairs they sit on to cut your hair (which I think is smart because I have a lot of friends who are stylists that have problems with their backs and legs). In Montenegro, hairstylists are likely the worst paid and work the hardest and still, for 7 euro I can get an amazing wash and set from a talented girl whose arms are like steel from roundbrushing hair all daylong.

And yes, I fully expect to pay more in a country with a higher standard of living, an expensive country.

Hair stylists in this country are just plain LAZY. You're probably wondering if I encountered this before at different salons. And yes, I have. Three to be exact. So I am full justified in painting them all with the same round brush.

These pretty girls need to get their shapely butts over to Montenegro, or America for that matter, and take a few lessons. The next time I won't be walking away with pent-up frustration and without leaving a tip. The next time I will leave a tip: I will demand a round brush, a blow dryer and show them how it's done.

6 comments:

Den said...

Yeah! can finally comment on your blog! OMG - HOW much for a haircut!? And I've been putting off the hair maintenence thing too! I will rush out and spend all of 10 euros on a bit of hair love and feel very lucky now!!! Keep the funny, interesting posts coming... Den X

septembermom said...

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience at that salon. You shouldn't have to tell the stylist how to get it right. Frustrating.

Hyacynth said...

First, the price is insane. If I were paying that much, I would have expected the round brushes to be made of gold and coated with diamonds.
Second, I think it's time you learn how to do hair and start your own business in Sweden. lol. Show them how it's done!

Anonymous said...

Hi there
I am currently living in Monenegro (am Canadian) and am desperately seeking a hairdresser for a cute and color (foils). My first couple of tries did not work out (language barrier & they didnt understand the type of color I get). Do you have any recommendations for a place in Podgorica? Many thanks! Nicole

SwedishJenn said...

Hi Anon. We were Canadian living in Monty too..though I imagined you already surmised that. Unfortunately, my only recommendation is a place in Herceg Novi, where we were living :-(. Join the Boka Buddies group on Facebook and ask there would be my recommendation. That's exactly where I would go to get the info for you. Let me know if you have any luck. Mon and Den (two Boka Buddies and expats on my blog) have any recommendations in Podgorica for Anon?

Anonymous said...

Hi Jenn I just saw this, I am a fake blonde moving to Sweden in a couple of months, how much does it cost to get your bleach done?