A haircut to remember!

A haircut is needed by every human being on this planet we call Earth. Getting a haircut is normally an easy and regular task. Getting a haircut today was anything but easy or regular...

I know one phrase in French. Parlez-vous anglais (Do you speak English)? The stylists in the salon sure didn't know how to speak English, but had mastered how to say the word no in the language. I was prepared to get my haircut by some French guy that I couldn't even communicate with. His hair looked nice, so I figured it was okay to let him cut mine. After the fondue incident in Zurich, I decided to discuss the price of the haircut with him first. He had to call a friend to figure out how to tell me the price in English. He finally told me it would be 18 euro. This looked like the deal of the year after being in Switzerland for a few days.

I ran up to my couchsurfing headquarters to get some money. I came back to find my stylist walking out with his motorcycle helmet and pink murse on. A beautiful French hair dresser then walked in and I had realized how lucky I was. Trading out a murse wearing male hairdresser for a hot French stylist is a good deal.

She started the haircut by asking what type of style I wanted. It was then that she realized that I knew no french, and I realized she knew no English. After a few failed attempts at communicating in Spanish, she busted out the book that displays all haircuts. She pointed out the weirdest haircut in the book and asked if that was what I wanted. It is funny how I understood she was joking with me, even though she made the joke in French. We finally settled on a more traditional cut after a few more options were shown to me.

The haircut looked good and it was time for me to pay her. At the register she kept telling me it was fourtEAn (Yes this is spelled wrong for emphasis on how the word sounded to me) Euro. I couldn't tell if she was saying 14 or 40. I knew the guy earlier had quoted me 18, but maybe she was an expert stylist or felt like ripping off a tourist that could not speak in French. I had her write down the price and it turned out to be 14. Thank god! I then tried to pay with the only bill I had in my wallet. The problem was that this bill happened to be a 100. She would not let me pay with the only bill I had on me.

Now I had to pay for a haircut with money that I did not have. Luckily, I brought my debit card to Europe for emergencies like this. A debit card was the perfect solution to my monetary dilemma, but there was a catch. I had not called my bank to tell them I would be traveling abroad. I was worried that the transaction would be cancelled and my card would be declined by my bank. Somehow the french haircut charge slipped through the financial cracks and went through. I tipped her 5 euro and left with a fresh look, a good story, and a debit card that has most likely had all activity frozen by now... Merci (thank you) France!