Be Rad in Korea: My First Haircut!

So every since I got here the thought of getting a haircut has been gnawing at the back of my mind. Its not that I'm afraid, its just that I'm afraid...

I'm a little picky when it comes to my haircuts and its not because I have an extravagant hairstyle or anything. It's quite basic, its just that the little things really count to me. It seems that beauticians take this assembly line approach when it comes to their hair cutting duties. To get around that at home, I bust through the door and I start smiling like I just discovered cheez ballz. In a Great Clips, I'm the most outgoing guy you know. Why? Because then the person cutting your hair likes you, they want you to look good. It feels like they know you and they want to take the extra time to make sure you're happy.

In Korea, I can do the same thing, but I'll look like a crazy person and I think it will have the opposite affect. I imagine they'd shave my head and throw me out the door before the giant foreigner man can hurt them.

So... this brings me to tonight. I NEEDED a haircut. Tonight was the night. No excuses. I had two goals: To get a decent haircut and to not look like an idiot in the process. In my mind, I was picturing myself waltzing into some salon... everybody goes quiet... then its all pointing and laughter. Because obviously this wasn't a place where they cut mens hair. Stupid foreigner... why dont you take you and your stupid hair back to America!

Either that, or we'd get done with the cut and it'd cost me my all my money and I'd have to start washing hair on weekends to work off my debt.

I was not about to let either of those happen.

So theres about 4 hair salons within 300 feet of my apartment, but the problem I had with those is that I've never seen a man receiving a haircut in there any time I've passed. So I did a few laps around the block just to see if any guys had gone in since I last passed. No luck. So I set out to find a good old fashioned barber shop, or at least a salon with a dude inside.

This was at about 9pm. At about 9:05, it started raining. I saw one barber shop (or at least I assume so because it had the red and blue spinny thing) but it was closed. I passed salon after salon after salon and there were still no mancuts taking place. I walked to the rich part of town. I walked right by homeplus (the Target of Korea). I walked around for a good hour in the pouring rain before I called it quits and headed home.

I made it back to my apartment looking exactly like an idiot... shaggy haired and soaking wet...

(insert dramatic inspirational music here)
*I looked in the mirror and and after staring deep into my soul, I told myself to man up. "It's time to cut some hair", I said. I shuffled down the stairs, burst out of my apartment, and ran to the first salon I saw.
I entered the door and screamed "ANYOUNGHASEYO!"

...

and I got the best haircut I've every had in my life. She took 35 whole minutes on just my head. She could have cut each hair individually...
After the cut, she washed it for me!
She even spoke pretty good english.
I paid 13,000 won ~ $12.00

Lesson for Brad: Don't be a girl. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Don't run around in the rain for an hour looking for something that's right under your nose, or you will, in fact, look like an idiot.