At the Beauty Shop

This morning as I sat in the Beauty Shop waiting to become more beautiful (alright now, I can already hear some of my friends snickering over that one!), it occurred to me that a person going into a new culture and new language needs a series of books like we had as kids:
At the Beauty Shop
At the Park
At the Grocery Store
At School
At Work
At the Post Office
etc.

You get my drift. These books should have lots of photos and illustrations and simple nouns and adjectives like Ella needs for learning new vocabulary.

So how do I say, color and pluck the eyebrows, color the roots and give me an overall micro-trim with some wispy bangs? Rosetta Stone hasn't covered that yet. Hm, that one escaped me but through pantomime (I was always good at charades), a few words of Italian with a few Spanish connecting words thrown in for good measure, and we managed to get it done. I also met up with an Italian lady at the end who was fluent in English, in fact I thought she was from the UK. She works at the US Navy Base here as a Financial Analyst and so she helped me through some of the last bits of explanation.

This is my second time at this salon, and while they are expensive, they do a nice job and are very busy. My new Italian friend confirmed that this is one of the best shops and they are right around the corner. Better to pay a little more and know that I will be happy with the results -- especially when I can't really explain what I need-- than to end up looking really bad for less money.

I wish I could take some photos, and maybe when my Italian is a little better, I can ask permission to take some pictures. I think you all would get a kick out of some of the small differences in the salon experience. For now, you will have to use your imagination as I attempt to explain some things about this part of Italian life.

First of all, get there early. No appointments, you just walk in. Plan on being there several hours. Nothing in Italy is done in a hurry, and the beauty shop visit on a Saturday morning is a social outing for the ladies. I saw many of the same customers as I saw last time I was there, and many of them obviously know each other as they greet with the traditional hug/two kisses and chat while having their treatments.

The rest of this description is women only: guys you will need to page forward. In any culture around the world, women NEVER divulge their beauty secrets so what I am about to discuss is strictly forbidden to men! If you try to sneak a peek, God will strike you blind (probably).

This shop is called WoMan, and uses products like Loreal, Paul Mitchell, Clairol, Infusium, and many other names you would recognize. There are several men working there, and the owner is an older, distinguished looking man. You are greeted at the door and issued a black nylon knee-length jacket (and they actually have sizes that fit me, unlike hospital gowns) that velcros in the front.

Since I had color, you get that first. A small plastic cape is added on top of the jacket. They weigh the color ingredients -- some I recognize, and some I don't. It looks a bit like a science experiment and I never saw them refer to a book or reference guide but clearly they must write down what the mix is for different people. He knew exactly what to add for my color. First the roots are colored. Apparently when you have roots done, they automatically refresh your highlights as well. I suppose if I had better language skills I could say "No, don't do that" but since I usually have my highlights refreshed anyway, it was fine.

Once the roots are done, she mixed up the blond for the highlights and began pulling out plugs of small bits at various places around my scalp. Instead of using foils or a cap, they have this wooden paddle. So she takes a plug of hair, paints it with a brush, then lays in on the paddle and finishes brushing the full length of the strand. When I am done, I have these highlighted bits sticking out all over. It turned out just fine but looks very strange.

A man came around with a paint brush and put color on many ladies' brows while they were sitting there letting their color cure. He is very good and fast, obviously does this all the time. There were no stray drops of color anywhere except right on the brow. Later he came back and wiped it off; he was keeping track of cure time on all these different women in the shop. Pretty amazing.

At the shampoo station, there was a bit of wait. I sat there awhile and listened to the conversations, understanding none of it, but understanding all of it, if you know what I mean. I had a very thorough shampoo -- maybe 15 minutes long -- where they do two soaps, a comb out, then a conditioner, and another comb out, all while you are in the basin. They use very little water, it is just a trickle.

I saw no curlers and no curling irons. All the curling is done with the blow dryers. They are masters of the blow dryers. I watched one older lady get what I would call a traditional "old lady" hair do, all done with a tiny roller brush and blow dryer. They section of the hair, use various mousses and sprays, and then one by one make each curl running the dryer on low and constantly using the brush until the curl is the tightness they want. Then they carefully lay down or sometimes pin the curl to hold it in place, and go to the next curl. It is a fascinating process to watch. No back combing is used either. One lady kept wanting more body and a higher poof to her hair, so the stylist used her fingers from underneath and literally massaged the scalp in quick motions stimulating the hair follicles to stand up. Sure enough, it worked!

I also saw lots of long hair -- long hair is in vogue in Italy, they haven't heard the news that women over 40 shouldn't wear long hair so all age groups were sporting long hair. The long hair was blown dry the same way only with very large round brushes, slowly working their way around the head. The blow out on one long-haired woman took 40 minutes. I did see them use a flat iron on one person at the very end as a finishing touch. They also added some curl to the bottom of one woman's hair, by switching to a smaller diameter brush at the last. I may have to let my hair grow out to stay in step with the fashion here.

For the trim, they placed a rubberized mat around my neck. He cut my hair with a razor, something I have not had done for a long time. Then she did my blow out using a medium round brush and some hair spray. My hair turned out really nice.

After that  I had my eyebrows plucked. They don't do waxing here. Same fellow that did the color, did the plucking and he was fast. His tweezers were going 90 miles an hour and almost felt like a razor on the skin, but no red marks afterwards. Then he gave me make up -- I had not asked for that but maybe everyone gets makeup, I don't know! I walked out looking like a million dollars! In total I was there 3 1/2 hrs. and it was a totally fun experience.

So a couple of other things I noticed. They shared brushes among clients and combs as well (not the ones used for color though). In the US, everyone gets a clean brush and comb, and if a stylist drops a comb on the floor, they are supposed to get a clean one. Not so in Italy. It really doesn't bother me since everyone's hair is clean anyway.

The make up artist used the same brush to apply eye shadow, blush and mascara on me that he used on other women. I really didn't think anything bad about it. He had wiped off my face before he started working on my brows. He used a disposable applicator for the lip stick though. Women do not put their purses on the floor; they put them up on the counter. I was the only one with my purse on the floor, and noticed that toward the end of my visit. Women dress up more for a trip to the beauty shop. I was the only one in jeans and athletic shoes.

The other thing I noticed is that different people did different operations to the clients. So instead of being assigned to one stylist who does it all, a different person did my cut from who did my color and style. It seems like they are all watching out for each other so when someone is ready for the next step, whoever is available does it. The main styling/cutting room is probably 14 ft. square and the stations (maybe 12 in all?) are around the outside with mirrors all over the walls, so that everyone can see everyone else. There is another small room for the entry and for the shampoos. In comparison to upscale shops in the US, this one is very small but I'll bet their business volume rivals much larger shops. Like many things Italian, it is smaller scale but organized in a very efficient manner. I am very impressed by what they do with very minimal equipment.