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Perfect Hair Forever

Summer has, like a squirrel, slowly been creeping up on me in the past few weeks. I keep needing to check behind me to make sure it's not poised to attack. I don't really know when it's fully going to reveal itself, as it comes and goes by it's own will, betraying no sense of order or decency. One day can see relatively warm weather, and the next morning can have the coldest, wettest and most bitter morning I have ever experienced in Germany.

From the first day that the weather kinda-sorta improved, I've been wearing my summer jacket, since I got very sick of wearing winter clothes. There have been some nights (such as the Lange Nacht) when I really shouldn't have been so optimistic, and I paid dearly. On the whole, however, those days are past now. In addition to actually wearing slightly lighter clothing (Goodbye thermal stuff!), I decided that now would be a good time to do a bit of spring cleaning on my image.

First thing to go was the beard. A few of you might have seen it - it looked quite distinguished, and really complemented my beanie-wearing head nicely. However, it made me look like a bum. Even though I spent far too long maintaining it, using all the proper equipment, I just got sick of seeing a fuzzy looking beard first thing in the morning. Rest assured, it'll be back next winter.

The next thing to receive treatment from the spinning blades of death was my hair. Now, this hair has been a project of mine for the past 10 months (roughly). Basically, I just let it grow really really long. It was down to shoulder length by the start of this week. The thing is, no-one ever really got to see it, since it was hidden under a beanie most of the time. Every now and again, someone says I should tie it back, or I should straighten it, or even get dreadlocks. None of that would have really helped though, since I think I inherently like shorter hair. If I'm going to have shorter hair, I'm going to need to get better at going to the hair-stylists here though.

I decided to go down to the funky hair-place here in Heidelberg called Unisex. I get in, and am holding a pic of my hair from when I went to Florence. One of the big things about getting my hair cut here was trying to figure out how to say what I wanted, and then trying to figure out how to say what I got was not what I asked for. The picture, I thought, had obviated the need for explaining what I wanted, but I still had difficulty expressing the concept of "messy" - which turns out to translate exactly to "mess-up". Once the instructions were finally delivered I could just sit back in the chair, and see the scissor and knife-twirling girl do her stuff with my hair. What I did miss was the ability to make small-talk while the hair was being cut. My usual hair-cutting banter doesn't translate too well into German, and I think I may have come across like I was trying to chat her up. Once the hair was actually completed, it looked nothing like the picture, beyond it being my hair on top of my head. I'm not complaining though, since it's a pretty good haircut. No pics, since I'm not that vain.

Last thing I wanted to fix up, was to pick up a hat for my head. Something with a decent sized brim, and a small-ish hatband. Something like a cross between a Fedora and a Sombrero. The tragedy is that I can't find the hat - anywhere. My head is just ridiculously large. I try to buy a large hat, and it just doesn't stay on my head. Extra large is the only way to go, and then you are subjected to choosing from a smaller range of hats. Oh cruel world! Why won't you cater for the generously proportioned head man?

3 comments

Anonymous *

How about some nice Akubra hats!!

http://hatsbythe100.com.au/product/bindex.php?product=menshatsuniquer&fromw=menshatsuniquer

Anonymous *

You should talk to Henry. He had difficulty buying a bike helmet for his generously proportioned noggin. Maybe you guys could start up a Big Heads R Us club. :)

Or, you could both beat me senseless when we come over in June...

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