History repeats itself

The first time it happened, I was in Atlanta. I thought, hey, let's forgo the usual Supercuts and try out the neighborhood barbershop. I tell the guy, "just a little off the top". Before I could react, I saw a large tuft of hair fall in front of my eyes in slow motion, as the buzz from the shaver whizzes past my ears. I ended up with an inadvertent buzz cut that day.

It happened again today. Only today, I tell the lady, "just a trim all around" in Chinese. Apparently I am misunderstood. Whenever I get my hair cut in China, I make sure to watch carefully to make sure my instructions are clear, since I'm pretty sure they don't cover barbershop phrases in the book.

I watched intently, but couldn't figure out what she was doing. She didn't use the razor, instead exclusively using the thinner shears. How do you cut hair using only thinner shears? Maybe that's how they do it in China, I thought, especially since everyone seems to like having these really awful looking feathered poofy haircuts so that from the back, you can't tell if it's a girl or a boy. Well, often, you can't tell from the front either.

Before I knew it, I had observed too long. And I knew that I would be leaving with a buzz cut. Dammit.