My First Salon Experience

Up until about a month ago, I had never paid for a haircut in my life. My aunt is a hairdresser and, for most of my life, had been the only one to ever cut my hair. After I moved away to go to college, I didn't have as many opportunities to drive back home for a haircut. My aunt gave me some tips, and just after watching her over the years I was able to cut my own hair, and have been doing so since college. But I was recently compelled to experience a salon as a paying customer. Cutting the back of your own hair is not always easy, so I thought it would be nice to rest assured that it was really straight this time. It's unfortunate that I can't compare my experience in a Japanese salon with that of an American salon. I didn't really have much done, just a trim and a moisturizing treatment, so the overall change to my look wasn't really drastic, but afterwards my hair was shiny and super soft. For the cut, treatment, a bottle of leave-in conditioner, and free shampoo and conditioner samples (yay!) ran me about 12,000 yen or $120, which was a bit steep for me-- remember I'm someone who had never paid for a haircut before. While shampooing, one of my stylists massaged my scalp, neck and shoulders for over 10 minutes (which was totally awesome) and during the moisturizing treatment, these cute small plastic ear-caps were put on my ears to prevent them from getting gunked up. Hiro, who I presume is the head stylist and maybe even the owner of the salon, Cockney, speaks great English and was salon-trained in London. He took the time to sit down with me and talk about what I wanted done. I had a good experience, and when I decide to do something more drastic with my hair, will definitely visit Cockney again. Cockney is located behind Nagoya Station, about a block or two away from Yamachan. Once you go, you can get a point card that will earn you free services like moisturizing treatments. Call 052-451-1584 and ask for Hiro if your Japanese isn't so hot.