Virgin Haircut and New Hairdo at Vidal Sassoon School

This was my 2nd haircut in London since I left home and my first one at Vidal Sassoon.

To be more exact, I went to Vidal Sassoon School near Bond Street and Oxford Street - the cradle of all aspiring professional hairstylists-to-be.

Quite a refreshing experience, at least for me whose hair has been cut by only male uncles or ah-peh barbers since I was born. And no shavers were used. Only a comb and a pair of scissors.

And its pretty cheap. It cost only 4.50 quids, compared to 6 quids at Mr Toppers 2 months ago.

Of course, it was cheap for a reason.

The whole haircut took exactly 3 hours. And it was cut and styled by an aspiring-hairstylist-to-be under the guidance of a professional instructor.

3 hours. 180 minutes. Haircut only.

The longest my haircut took in the past was at most 15 minutes, excluding waiting time.

This was the first time it took such a long time for my hair to be cut.

And I was one of the last models to leave the class.

Even some girls and women and ang moh tai tais in the same class finished their haircuts earlier than me.

Left in the class were me, and two guys and a couple of ladies.

I didn't know haircuts can be so professional and detailed and intricate, until today.

My Japanese female hairstylist-to-be examined every nanometre of my hair.

And I thought guys' hair is supposed to be easier to cut and styled?

I was very wrong.

So it all began last Monday when I decided to cut my hair and I happened to find out such a cheap bargain at Vidal Sassoon School. Appointments were all fully booked from last week until today.

At 130pm today afternoon, I stepped into Vidal Sassoon School with other cheapskate Brits uncles, aunties, and poor Londoners like me.

Then, we were asked to pay before the haircut and were shoved to a small waiting area (smaller than my hostel room), at which we were given colour tags.

The colour tags signify exactly which class we go to. I don't know the exact difference between the classes though.

And up we go to meet the people who will be styling our hair - the students.

I was allocated this pretty sweet demure Japanese girl.

My hair was first washed and shampooed and scalp massaged by her.

She then asked me how I want my hair to be cut, followed by a discussion with the instructor on how my hair can be styled.

Then came all the technical terms which was all Greek to me.

"Disconnection from the temples", "square at the back", "graduation", "layering", "break my hair" and the list goes on.

Every step she took had to be reviewed by the instructor before she can proceed to the next step, and any wrong technique was corrected on the spot.

"No, you should graduate his hair this way." "The hair must be disconnected at his temples, not lower or higher, but at his temples." And so on and so forth.

Whatever. I just let them play with my hair for 180 minutes.

Oh yah, and one thing was no shavers was used throughout the cut. Only a pair of scissors and a comb. First time in my life a haircut without a shaver.

And the end-product now was I-dunno-how-to-describe kinda hairstyle.

My hair isn't long now. Neither is it the Armani style I used to don before I came to London and let it grow wild.

It's not short enough to be called spiky. And it is not long enough to have partings.

My hair is sort of assymetrical now, with a slight slope in between the top where the main bulk of hair is and the periphery of my hair outline.

That is, the periphery of my hair ex-outline is almost left intact, which means I have longer strands of hair at the periphery from my sideburn on the left hand side, extending through the back of my head to the sideburn of my right hand side.

Well, that's the best description I can offer. Ha.

Not a bad cut afterall despite the long process.

I think I'll visit the school again before I fly home in June/July.