Today we are on a Rainy-Day-Schedule. Since we couldn't go paddling today, and we had already played several rounds of Heads Up, 7-Up, Simon Says, and Duck, Duck Goose, we decided this was a good day to take care of some other business. Little did we know what adventures awaited us.

On the walk home from our workout, we saw there was a normal looking (aka: western looking) hair salon that opened at 11. We decided, against, our friend, Erin's advice , to go  and get our haircuts done here today instead of going all the way out to PPR. After lunch we headed out. Interesting experience.

First, the lady seemed hesitant to really cut Shauna's hair. Shauna had to keep telling her to take a little bit more off. That was until the lady pulled out a straight-edge razor. She used it to cut above Shauna's ears. Shauna wasn't going to dare ask her to tidy up the back side - not with that thing in her hand. We're still not sure what the baby powder spread over Shauna's ears as a finishing touch was all about.  In the end, Shauna's hair looked pretty decent so I deemed the hairstylist safe. My bad!

She asked what I wanted. I said I wanted my same hair cut, just shorter.

"Half inch?" she asked.

"One inch," I said very clearly.

She asked again, "Half inch?"

"One inch," I replied with a big smile and showing it with my finger and thumb. (Afterward, Shauna said I spread my finger and thumb too far apart, showing more like 2 inches.)

Apparently here in Palau, or at least to this woman, "one inch" means whack off 3 inches with the very first cut. I saw it drop to the ground, and, for some reason, my heart went with it. Thud! Had she misunderstood me? Did she think I said I wanted the same haircut as Shauna? Did she think I wanted all my hair only one inch long?

"Here we go," I thought to myself, as I recalled times in the past where  haircuts had gone terribly wrong. What could I do at this point? What could I say? "Put that hair right back and let's start this all over again." No, that would do no good.

This was one of those times you just grin and bear it. Get through it and be glad that hair grows back. I had no idea what this lady had in her mind and what my hair might look like when all was said and done. I tried not to make faces showing my alarm, but I did try to make eye contact with Shauna, during the hair cut, to see if it was as bad as it felt.

It wasn't a good sign, right near the end, when I made eye contact with Shauna in the mirror trying to talk to her with my eyes. I was asking, "How bad is it?" She turned toward the front door and busted up laughing. Very bad sign.

As we were paying, I reached back and felt my hair. Right at the base of my neck , my hair was only about one inch long. Ahhhh! When I entered that place, my hair was a couple of inches below my shoulders. On the sides and top the stylist actually did what I asked and only took one inch off. So  I've got hair that's about 4 inches long until you get to the back - there it's only an inch.

 

The worst thing of all  . . .  she left me with a tail! There were about 10 strands of hair at the base of my neck that escaped the entire haircut. Fantastic. I had a 4 inch long, 1980's rat tail!!!!

Yeah, we sooo cut the tail off before we took the picture!

When we were driving down to get our haircuts we were talking about how this might go. I brashly said, "I'm not worried about my haircut. I can always just pull it up into a ponytail." Oh yeah? That's not even a slight possibility with this haircut. I may have to do one of those top half only ponytails. I can't wait to see what this is going to look like when the poofy hair hits. The ponytail was my only fallback for that situation.

So, all you visitors, who are here in Palau for any length of time, and find yourself in need of a haircut, here's Erin's advice. Only put your hair in the hands of Dodhi at PPR. I know I'll be following that advice next time around.

We should have listened to you, Erin!!