Yet another new experience in Wuhan: the hair salon.
Yesterday, Agnes, Eudora and Weilin decided to go down to the salon to get their hair done, and in a way they were our guinea pigs. Eudora did a hair treatment that was pretty good and Eliza, Brenda, Michelle, Yixian and I decided to go try our luck there today.
I didn't want to do much with my hair, nor did Brenda, so all we did was some hair treatment for RMB98 (~SGD20). Eliza, Michelle and Yixian ended up dyeing their hair.
Eliza; getting her hair washed.
Brenda getting her hair treatment heated up.
Jamie getting highlights!
Michelle getting a new hair colour. Don't have photos of the end result, but it looks good!
Eliza with the hair treatment done and new natural brown hair.
Brenda and my hair looking extra shiny from the hair treatment, whoo.
One other new thing today:
Candied haw(冰糖葫芦)
Personal Reflection:
While Singapore may be well-known for her success in establishing itself despite being a small nation, I think there are actually many who don't know much about us.
At the salon today, the hairdressers had a lot of questions about us being Singaporeans and Singapore itself. One of the greatest misconceptions about Singapore, I think, is that it's a part of China. One of the hairdressers actually asked me that and was quite taken aback when I said we were an independent country. I've heard this pretty often too; that Singapore is a part of China. Wonder how that came about?
Anyway, I like it when I get to share about Singapore and how we are about our country, which was basically what the hairdressers wanted to know. They were curious about Singaporeans who were in their line of work as well; were their salons bigger than those in Singapore; if Singaporean salons are pricier; if our technology is better and et cetera. I was glad to share; I even whipped out a Singapore $5 note to show them when they got curious. They were actually quite fascinated that it was made of plastic, and actually said that it looked like the Hongkong dollar.
They were also surprised that we could speak Mandarin. Honestly, I've heard this comment a few times during my time here, and I'm still surprised locals are surprised we can speak Mandarin. I suppose it's strange to them that we can have different races in Singapore but still be able to speak Mandarin.
More often than not, I enjoy listening to people's perspective about Singapore, like when we ran into that photographer on the bus last week and he was praising Singapore to another stranger. Sometimes, their comments about Singapore makes me feel even more patriotic.
