the wacky wombat weblog

[A much needed] haircut

auyongtc | November 27, 2007

It’s been months since my last haircut here in Tokyo. I’ve only been getting my haircut every 3-4 months while living here. And it’s always been at the QB House, those vending machine-based express haircut outlets that takes payment in one and only one denomination (a single 1,000 yen note in this case), spits out a ticket with a number, and makes you sit alongside other patrons patiently waiting for their haircut.

There isn’t much sense with the ticket number as I’ve noticed. There’s no wall display of next number to be called to the seat, there’s no announcing of the next number by the barber, there’s no indication that the number is of any use except to serve as a figure of interest while you stone at the bench waiting for your turn with nothing better to look at. People would sit down on the bench according to their turn, and when one leaves the bench for the seat at their turn, the rest of the people will shuffle around to fill up that gap in the same order. Why do they make me sit down at all the different bench seats just to get to my turn for my haircut?

The process is fast though, 10 mins per head with another 1 min overhead (pun not intended) to brush and sweep away the hair from the seat and scissors. There’s even a traffic light-like device out there with blinking lights to indicate how long you’re gonna be stuck there waiting for your turn, should you decide to part with your 1,000 yen note. At the end of the haircut, the barber will even offer to give you the disposable comb he just used on your head as a token of appreciation. That’s not a bad deal after all. After 2 times, I started to politely decline the offer as I’ve got no use for the extra combs at home.

My haircut there tends to be simple, just inform the barber (in whatever limited command of Japanese language I have) how short I want my haircut, in the same style. I’m not about to experiment, or let the barber experiment his skills. Not at 1,000 yen anyway. Keep it short and simple. And my hair seems to grow at a slower pace here, dunno for what reason. So that’s stretching my 1,000 yen a long long way.

In comparison, I often have my haircut every 1-1.5 months back home. At the neighbourhood salon, I get charged like RM 16 per visit, and that’s cheap. Dollar-to-dollar, my haircut here at the QB House is slightly cheaper. But of course, back home it’s a decent salon, and the stylist-cum-owner would talk to me about football betting and how the matches are fixed, so the skill is to bet on how you would think they fix the matches. When it comes to yen-to-ringgit, it’s like RM 120 (4,000 yen at 4 times) per year compared to RM 160 (RM 16 at 10 times) per year. Seems like I’ve been shaving off my haircut expenses while living here at a great extend. LOL!

Guess I’ll be going for my haircut this weekend, but not before a hearty lunch at Maru-kin for its excellent ramen!