skewed vision

Chinese people have a bit of the same stereotype-y ideas about looks that we do. The same way that someone in The States might say all Chinese look the same, a lot of Chinese would say that all non-Chinese look the same. 

In Songyuan, many Chinese thought my black, Jamaican friend and I were sisters. Tonight on the street, someone told me I look like Beyonce. I'm about as white as they come.

So, clearly, there are some interesting things with perception going on here.

But I've come across something else pretty funny recently. I dyed my hair hot pink a few weeks back, and naturally have gotten quite a bit of attention for it. What's been surprising to me though, is the number of Chinese people that think it's my natural hair color.

After assuming it's my real color, they will almost always tell me there is something wrong with me. I don't even know what to say to that. I can't imagine even a child anywhere else possibly thinking this color was natural.

random pix: for the ladies

This was in the nail salon down the street from my apartment. They laughed when they figured out I was taking this photo during my pedicure.

Subtle, right?

This is for a business in my building. I think they remove butt cracks via health food.

You'd never know it at a glance, but this is an ad in my elevator for a nearby gym.

They apparently offer umbrella dancing classes?

more on hair dye & vinegar & salon torture

Over the past summer, I did figure out the key to the whole not-washing-your-hair-and-using-apple-cider-vinegar-instead thing if anyone was curious. I started doing that back in June of last year and was definitely having some grease issues. Then in July, I met a girl traveling who was doing the same thing, except she had the missing piece- when your hair gets greasy you need to use baking soda to wash it.

This has its pros and cons. It killed the grease factor, which was awesome, but it also killed the softness and texture of my hair, which obviously sucks.

I haven't been able to find baking soda in Xiamen, even at the western grocery stores, and it took me six months to find a place to buy apple cider vinegar, so I've converted back into a regular hair washer. I just use apple cider vinegar to "set" my color the first wash after I get it done now. I still don't need to wash as often though (except my bangs) and use much less product than I used to, so I'm happy about that.

I've had some other interesting hair experiences since moving to Xiamen. I dyed my hair purple in November, as in Crayola purple, and it was absolutely fabulous. Unfortunately, two weeks after that, I gave the digital-torture-perm-machine a try and they completely washed out all my color. I always see Chinese girls with straight hair and gorgeous, perfectly curled spirals at the ends. I discovered that they all have digital perms that just begin about halfway, or lower, down their hair; I decided to give it a shot.

It's been quite a while since I had a regular perm (probably almost ten years), but if memory serves, I think digital didn't smell as bad for nearly as long. They put some chemicals on your hair, rinse after a while and then roll it with a little tissue paper in each curl, plug the curlers into the torture machine and then let you sit for about 30 to 45 minutes and voila. Seems simple, but somehow that simple process still took me about five hours.

My problem, aside from them washing out my beautiful purple color, is that I asked for the biggest sized rollers because I wanted big spiral curls at the ends. Also, that way, it would be easier to wear my hair straight. When the guy finished my perm though, he was kind of upset and tried to tell me that it didn't take very well so my hair wouldn't be very curly and he wanted to redo it. I didn't want it very curly, so I told him it was fine, I'd come back if I had a problem. He didn't speak English and my Chinese is still crap, so communicating wasn't exactly easy. He texted me later that night though and said he talked to some other people, he had an idea and he wanted me to come back in. I did the next day and he went right to work without even talking to me. He redid my perm with the smaller curlers and naturally I don't like it. That's my fault for not stopping him though.

The same guy did my color and my perm. He was at a salon down the street from my apartment that looks nice enough, but I didn't know anyone that had been there before or anything.

The next time I wanted color done, I told a Chinese friend of mine I'd go somewhere near her apartment if she'd take me and talk to them for me. She had planned to take me to a salon she'd been to once, but it closed, so she ended up taking me to one her boyfriend had gotten a haircut at, once. Not exactly the most promising beginning to a hair experience.

It was TINY, four chairs, all full, with four people waiting in other chairs and rotating in. It wasn't nearly as nice or clean, but it cost half as much as the one by my apartment and I was much happier with the result.

I asked for orange, bright orange, and ended up with an ombre orange to pink effect, due to whatever old dye was still in my hair, and it's pretty awesome (the lady offered to even it out but I said no).

That salon was also the first I've gotten my hair dyed at in China that didn't offer me different brands of dyes at different price points. That part I'm ambivalent about, but I'm definitely going back to the smaller, not as nice but significantly more awesome place next time.

hair dye & vinegar

I finally got my hair dyed here. I used to see my stylist about every seven weeks in Phoenix. I got my hair dyed the week before I came here. Then I got it done nine weeks later in Korea. Then I tried to do it about eleven weeks later myself with a box of bright purple dye I bought in Xiamen (cool colors are can only be found in big cities). I made the unfortunate discovery though, whilest I had a head semi full of dye of course, that I have enough hair that I require two boxes to cover my whole head, not one. It actually didn't look too bad, but I was definitely due.

I walked into a salon near my apartment and pointed to anything on the red/violet page of the dye book (having no clue on their skill level I didn't want to be too picky). They applied the dye and I read my book. And read some more. And some more. Then they tried to scrape the dye out and added some more. And then I read some more. And some more. Then we did another scraping and reapplication. All in all, it took about three hours to dye my hair and maybe four rounds of dye application. In the States if I get my hair straight dyed, just all over color, no highlights or lowlights or anything, it would take maybe an hour.

My students have told me that dyeing your hair causes cancer. As an avid hair dyer, I am inclined to disagree. Given that process though, and the fact that the dye made my scalp burn a bit, which typically only happens if you're going blond in the States, I think they might be on to something.

Either way, I'm definitely happy with the color. Granted I did pick the most expensive one; here you select the brand of dye you want and they all have different price points. It's holding up very well also. I'm currently washing my hair every day, which could potentially destroy the color really quickly, but it's doing fine.

When I was younger, I used to wash my hair every day. When I came to China, I was down to about every two or three days to preserve my color. Here, I cut back to every four or five days. I wasn't even brushing my hair at the point either, it had really good texture and the further I was in between washes the more compliments I got on it. And then I completely stopped shampooing it.

I have some friends here that don't wash their hair, they use vinegar (specifically apple cider vinegar) to clean it. I'd heard something about this in the States as well, not using soap or shampoo; it's supposed to be really good for you once your body adjusts. I'm not typically the person that is super worried about using the most natural products or whatever, but if all other things are equal, I'm definitely going to choose the natural route. Between that, curiosity and the whole "if I don't try it now, when else will I have the opportunity" thing, I decided to try it.

The transition to vinegar can be a greasy one while your hair rebalances, so I'm "washing" with vinegar every day. It makes my hair feel really soft when it's wet (like there's a bunch of conditioner in it). It's pretty normal when it's dry, aside from grease in my bangs and at the crown. I'm on about two and a half weeks of this, but the salon washed my hair quite a bit when I got my hair dyed, so we'll see how it is in another week or two.

random pix: Chinese Mexicans, urinary reproduction & hair salon torture

I'm just confused.

This frickin' clown is EVERYWHERE in Songyuan.

These people are definitely not Mexican...

"Eastern Urinary Reproductive of Hospital"?

Most hair salons have this. WTF is it?!

Come again?

power oulets

Electrical outlets in China are actually, surprisingly, compatible with most plugs from the US. Anything with a ground won't fit, because that portion of the outlets is shaped differently, but most other things will.

If one of the prongs is bigger than the other, you have about a 50/50 chance of the plug fitting into an outlet here, and about a 50/50 chance of it fitting into an extension cord, but you can always find something to make it work (unless you're traveling around China, in which case you might want to bring an adapter just in case). All outlets are singles, so extension cords tend to be necessary.

One thing I didn't really think about too much until recently was the voltage of the outlets. Whenever you plug something in it gets REALLY hot, so I don't leave anything plugged in for very long (especially not anything from the States), but I've never really had it cause any problems. Until the gala the other week. I decided to try to curl my hair since I was dressing up and all. About a minute or two after plugging in my curling iron I noticed a funky smell, but couldn't place it. Maybe five minutes later when I went to curl my hair I figured it out, it was melting plastic.

Now, this was a cheap curling iron, which probably accounts for part of it (my other one survived). I've plugged in many other things from the States while living here and this is the first time anything funky has happened, but it definitely made me laugh.

I was talking about it with some friends here, and one of them said in their apartment there is a line clearly singed up the wall leading to the outlet where their tv is plugged in. Sliiiight fire hazard anyone?!

For anyone that's coming to visit me (or just curious), items I've safely and successfully charged to date include:

-MacBook Pro

-Kindle Fire

-iPhone 4S

-iPod Nano

-Fuji digital camera battery charger

-Clarisonic face scrubber

-Oral B electric toothbrush

-ConAir curling iron

-BaByliss hair dryer

random pix: China wtf

Through that gate area is my apartment... and while Songyuan is a small town, it is NOT this country.

This is for a hair salon...

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mirror mirror

One thing I am loving about China is not caring at all what I look like. There aren't nearly as many mirrors around as in the US, The Crack Den doesn't even have a full length mirror anywhere, and people really just don't care nearly as much. They wear a lot less makeup (if any), they wear their hair in ponytails most of the time and they'll wear the same clothes a few days in a row.

I don't have to dress up for school, I just have to look put together and not be revealing. Their definition of revealing is a bit different, short things are fine and tight things are fine as long as you have tights underneath so no actual skin is showing. I'm wearing jeans, a hoodie and my glasses now and I fit right in. I did wash my hair today for the first time in like four days though :) I haven't blow dried my hair since I got here, haven't broken out more than eyeliner and mascara and haven't worn anything for less than two days (and I've only been here for six). It takes absolutely zero time to get ready in the morning, it's great!

I am constantly surprised though by the ponytails and the short shorts or short skirts with tights just because of the weather. It's way too cold out as far as I'm concerned to have exposed ears or minimally covered legs and a LOT of women do this every day. To each their own I guess...