Going to the Hairdressers in France

When I first came to France in 2007, it took me a while before I could force myself to go to the hairdressers. Even in my native tongue describing how you want your hair done can be a challenge.  There are several hairdressers in our town of Realmont, but there is one in the square called Blondy's and for some reason that's were I made my first appointment.

Now when you don't have a good command of the language, it can be quite difficult to go to a French hairdresser, and explain exactly what you want. Besides the usual, Bonjour and Je voudrais un rendez-vous, (hello I would like an appointment) I hadn't a clue how to say what I wanted.

So the first time, and I must say every-time now, I always take a photograph with me. I learnt to say a cut and blow dry, which is un coupe and brushing. When explaining how much to cut off my hair I was very careful. In France they don't work in inches like the UK, its centimeters, so for a trim I would say 3 centimeter, which sounds much the same French only with a French accent.

If you want to have your hair layered its 'en dégradés' and to have it straightened its 'raide'. So after a couple of years I decided to have highlights. I must admit I was very nervous about this, I could imagine coming out like the jolly green giant.  So I looked up the French word for highlights and found 'les mèches', I also found a good photo of blonde highlights and printed that off. Well I have to admit they did a very good job. But like every language you need to be very careful on your  pronunciation, and not say something like 'I would like my horse cut' as the French word for horse is Chevaux and the word for hair is cheveux.

But I manage alright, and they know me at the hairdressers now and they know I can't speak French very well.
Unfortunately there isn't a lot of small talk going on, but so long as I get what I want I'm happy enough.



Quote for today:
'Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words'