After an emergency hospital stay and an on again/off again cancer diagnosis, I am taking a look back at some of the more harrowing episodes in our nomadic travel. I have to say the most difficult and most stressful challenge of everyday life abroad has been getting my hair styled.
We are currently visiting San Diego, so I made a visit to my old hair stylist. I had a little trepidation having her see what I have allowed to happen to my hair for the past four years. In her words, “I am very lucky I have good hair”. She said most people’s hair could not have withstood what I have put mine through. I mentioned that I can never see the back of my head; we are lucky to have one mirror in a hotel, never two. She made some nodding motion as she was leveling out the length, evidently at least an inch longer on one side. It is a good time to look back.
Hair Loss
The first time I braved having my hair done was after almost three months abroad. This was the time of our very first house sit. I asked the lady of the house to recommend an english speaking hair stylist; we were in Braunschweig, Germany. His name was Elvis and he turned out to be colorful to match his name. Gay and Roma, he had a few chips on his shoulder in Germany. The salon was upscale, including a bit of cake after the cut. He had some ideas and I let him flex his talent. Overall a pleasant and entertaining experience.
Then two days later, the hair started to fall out. Three months into our major life change, still missing our dogs, I blamed this on stress. Even though it began a conspicuous day after the hair treatment. In the end, it was not stress. In all, probably a third of my head of hair was lost. Good start to my track record of taking care of everyday needs on the road. For the next six months, I did not let anyone process my hair and just stayed behind any cameras.
Try to get Referrals
No one wants to pick out a hair stylist without a referral. A smart course would be to get a referral from someone that has hair like me, and who’s hair I particularly admire. Great idea. This is one benefit of house sitting. We are usually in areas where people live versus touristy locales. So, you would think, access to everyday services would be easier. I often query the ladies of the homes for stylist referrals.
Off the Beaten Path
Several times now, these referrals have been people that work out of their homes. Some have spare rooms or garage renovations that have all the tools and furniture of a hair salon. Most of the equipment. One time, the hair stylist used a blow dryer to put a little heat on my highlights. Don’t know if this is the reason, but I ended up with a horizontal stripe of extra-light hair. It turned out there were two such bars of light, the other in the back where I could not see it.
I was feeling pretty smug getting that appointment. It was just after New Zealand’s covid lockdown was lifted, when every woman in town was hoping for a hair appointment. That smug feeling, more often than not, leads to fall from the high horse.
Communication
For travelers, a stylist that speaks the language is also kind of important. It is a very helpless feeling when the stylist is cutting where you do not want cut, and you cannot communicate. Sometimes communication is difficult even when they do speak English. One time, a stylist in Dublin was cutting layers that I knew would be a disaster for my hair. I put up some objections. I remember him saying that his only objective was to make the client happy, as he kept with his plan. The message being he knew best. My response: well you’re not succeeding right now. It took another 6 months to grow out those layers. Another 6 months behind the camera lens.
My hair keeps a record of every salon experience. Each stylist has a different formula and the color of my highlights is different, the width of the highlights differ, etc.
I should say it was evident. My last hairstyle was in Portugal. The stylist had left over goop (the paste substance that bleaches the highlight). She did not want it to go to waste, so she started combing it in my hair. I no longer have highlights, but rather blond hair. For all this work, she charged me under 20€.
Customs vary for hair styling in different countries. Cost for hair care varies in the extremes. One of the best salon experiences I had was in Croatia. The entire experience cost about 25€. About $25 at that time. Some have been closer to $200. The level of hygiene varies quite a bit too. Like everything else, they do it different in different places; it is all part of the experience.
We move around like nomads as you know. Like nomads, we circle back to our favorite haunts. Getting back to a favorite stylist is one of the best benefits for a return. While in New Zealand, I was able to visit the same dentist in Dunedin twice, and the same stylist near Christchurch three different times. It took her three visits to erase those perfectly straight bars of light on my head.
Hair care and nail care, or lack thereof, is a definite drawback with our full time travel lifestyles. I am not complaining, it is worth it and definitely not enough to make us change our way of life. Just a nod in that direction.
*cover photo by Photo by Guilherme Petri