The other day I went back to my Vigo hairdresser’s. When the roots start to show, it’s time to bite the bullet and get the colours done again, even if it means explaining things once more. So I went along to the place I have been several times before when we lived full time in Vigo. I had the ritual argument with the hairdresser about exactly what I wanted done, despite going equipped with the dye numbers in various hair colour brands used by my “peluquera de toda la vida”, my usual hairdresser. Having got through that, it was fairly plain sailing and for once nobody asked if I wanted my eyebrows dyed to match.
One aspect of the treatment was odd: some kind of conditioner was massaged into my hair and then I was placed under what for all the world appeared to be an old-fashioned hair drier, one of those with a hood that comes down over you head. The difference was that this one proceeded to dispense steam. I’ve still not worked out what it was supposed to do.
Other than that, not much has changed since I was last there just over two years ago. There is still only one male stylist; in fact he is probably the only one allowed to be called a stylist. All he does is talk to customers, decide what is to be done, talk on his hands-free mobile phone and snip: he is the ONLY one who cuts hair. The girls/ladies hang on his every word and do his bidding. Do they ever progress to cutting? I wonder!
He was a little sniffy about the fact that all I wanted was to have any split ends, “puntitas rotas”, trimmed and more than a little condescendingly showed me the amount he was snipping off. Even so, later in the evening a friend exclaimed, “¡Has cambiado tu look!”.
There it is again, that language mix-up thing. They slide into a bit of English at every opportunity. I even heard some youngsters discussing dance on the street talking about “free estyle” (sic). They might borrow words but they still find words beginning with “st” hard to say!
On my way back from the hairdresser’s, I noticed that the shop “Vintage and Coffee” were advertising their reductions in a strange hybrid of Spanish and English: ¡¡TODO A 20% OFF!! Is it intended for the people who come off the cruise ships? Or is it just a style (estyle) thing? Who knows? I certainly don’t.
Sometimes the use of English is even rather clever. Round the corner from the bijou residence is a shop called “Home Made – La Craftytienda”, selling knitting yarn, embroidery silks, kits for making cards or soft toys and so on. I like the use of language and at least they can spell “Home Made” which is more than some English people can do. The last notice I saw this on in the UK advertised “homeade soup”.
Craft shops like that one are popping up all over the place. I wonder why? Is it that in the time of crisis and financial austerity, people feel good f they are working with their hands in some way? I even read about a cafe in Santiago de Compostela where there is a regular knitting circle. A bunch of ladies, often including the lady owner, sit and knit while they drink coffee and chat. Apparently they find it therapeutic.
Now I just need to hear of a cafe where men go and do therapeutic woodwork and DIY!!
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