Hair Salon, at an alley near you!

I was due for a haircut, and I remembered my housemate telling me about a good local hair salon just down the alleyway... Surely she couldn't be talking about one of those VERY local ones... the home salons which consist of a barber armchair and mirror set, embedded in a very cluttered small room in the front of the house, sometimes doubling as a small pharmacy, convenience shop, or whatever else convened for the family to sell.

I drove around, peering at several of these home-carved barbershops spattered throughout my neighbourhood, but to tell the truth, none of them really appealed to me as a place where I could feel soothed getting my hair done.

After checking again with my housemate and getting the proper direction, I turned left instead of right at an alley split just several meters down from my house, and found the unmistakable hair salon just a bit further down. Now THIS is a proper hair salon (relatively speaking).

The mini hair salon occupies the first narrow floor of the house, and it was decorated in true hair salon style and equipped with the basic standard amenities. Through the glass doors I see the hairdresser working on a client and a female assistant. Shy to go in, the assistant finally sees me spying through the front gate and she comes out to attend to me. Um... Can I get a haircut? She said yes and confirmed that I could come now.

It turns out that when I asked if there were currently any availabilities for a haircut at the moment, the answer would always be 'yes' even if the hairdresser is already busy with a client... and there is only one hairdresser. That is because you just come in and you are sat on a chair, and you soon find yourself on the tray of multitasking of the hairdresser, who juggles his clients around harmoniously between himself, a female assistant, and a male assistant. When he finished coloring the first client's hair, he got to me and we consulted on the kind of haircut I'd get, then he got back to his other client as I contemplated and had my gown put on, then he cut my hair while an assistant finalized the work of the other client, then I was brought to the hair-washing room right beside by the female assistant, who gave me an extremely long hair wash fused with scalp massage. The head massage/shampooing lasted approximately 45 minutes and was very sleep-inducing, as my mind blissfully wandered to great places as the assistant's hands scratched at the back of my head, moulded my temples and kneaded my scalp. I did not expect this whole head massage session, but I guess it worked out for them as both a service offered as well as a buffer phase so that clients can be passed around seamlessly between the trio-workers as they became available.

The male assistant blow-dried and styled my hair with pomade while the hairdresser finished off another client and then moved on to a male client already sitting in the barber chair. Hmm.... I guess their system works, I conceded to myself.

In the reflection of the mirror, the wall behind me was adorned with imported shampoo, which was the salon's expert shampoos. Amongst the shampoos, I saw Garnier Fructis and the likes, which back home is a common household shampoo we buy at the store.

The hairdresser had been cutting hair for roughly 15 years, around Ho Chi Minh City. He established this shop a couple of years ago, as he lives in this neighbourhood. From the certificates I saw hanging on the walls, I saw that he was a self-motivated and passionate hairdresser, having attended many hairstyling seminars, training courses and programs. He works 7 days a week, and the number of clients vary on a day-to-day basis, from 5 up to about 20 or 30 clients a day. It's unpredictable, he stated. I asked him if he ever had foreigner clients, and he said that he did. How's that? Because he had clients who brought some foreign friends in, he responded. His shop opens at 9am and it will close anywhere from 7pm to 10 or 11pm, depending on his energy level and business.

I paid 150,000 VND (about $7.50) for the haircut and shampoo, and tipped each of the assistants as I had seen the other clients do. I was satisfied with the haircut, thanked them, and then rode back up the alley to home.