"Did you get a haircut?"

"Just cut it short," she added, "20 euros."

That's exactly what I want to ask.

"It's expensive to cut your hair in Germany. I'll cut it myself. "

"Cut it yourself?" Wei Lina opened her eyes wide. "Have you learned to cut your hair?"

"I haven't studied, but I started to teach myself in Germany."

A haircut is a piece of cake in China, but it's no big deal for China people living in Germany. After living in Germany for three years, I have never found a complete solution. Think about it every time you cut your hair. You may ask, isn't it just a haircut As for trouble? I don't know if cutting hair is easy for others. For me, it's easy.

Of course, the easiest way to get a haircut is to go to the barber shop, wash, cut, blow and leave. That's how it was solved in China. In China, I often use my lunch break at work to go to the barber shop in the nearby community for a haircut. I go there once every two or three months, ranging from 30 yuan RMB 20 yuan to 20 RMB. Every haircut is a familiar red brick shop, a familiar barber and a familiar process. There is no decoration inside or outside the store, which is natural, even a little crude, but very kind. Being here is like going to a neighbor's house.

"There you are." "Still the same hairstyle?" Every time it is so simple, communication is almost always done in words. Eat it in more than 20 minutes, then thank you, pay the money, goodbye and leave. Now that I think about it, I feel so familiar and relaxed. For several years, the barber has been the same person, that is, the boss. The tacit understanding between Keren and the barber is ordinary and warm.

There is a lot of trouble in cutting hair in Europe. First, the price is high.

There are many barbershops in the small town of Germany where I live, and the price of haircut is between 15-35 Euros. Women are more expensive than men. Seeing this price, I have to do multiplication. If RMB in 8 yuan is equal to 1 Euro, the price of haircut is 15× 8 ... This is the total cost of my haircut in China. German labor costs are high, and hairdressers are typical manual workers. This is the price for a haircut in Germany. The barber shop opened by Germans is characterized by its high price, and it is really unreasonable to tip 10% regardless of whether the customers are satisfied or not.

If it is an individual phenomenon that the poor living in Germany think that the haircut cost of 15-35 Euro is a bit expensive, is Lang Lang, a young pianist in China, a rich man? I read an article a few years ago that Lang Lang went to Europe to perform. Before the performance, he wanted to get a haircut. When I heard that a haircut in Europe costs about 180 yuan RMB, the pianist thought it was "too expensive".

In this way, China people, rich or poor, agree that the cost of haircut is high in Germany and even in Europe. There may also be a question of values here. Like doing one thing, like one thing, often don't care about the price. Writer Haiyan likes to collect. An antique can cost hundreds of thousands or even millions, but he is not willing to spend 100 yuan to go to a restaurant for dinner.

Twenty or thirty euros is a common price for Germans, and it has been like this for many years. But for China people, 20-30 RMB is the domestic haircut price, with a difference of 7-8 times. German labor is expensive, but it is also expensive, right? In addition, Germans lack the service consciousness of domestic merchants, and the lower their consumption, the less they have the service consciousness. Perhaps in their view, what services do such low consumption need? This difference in thinking between Germans and foreigners has led to the emergence of more and more barber shops run by foreigners in big cities in Germany.

Secondly, I am worried about poor communication, language barriers and unclear words. The hairdresser's hairstyle is quite different from his imagination. I also thought that if I met a barber who could speak English, I could take a chance and be a mouse. But I heard from my German friend in a small town that the barber here can't speak English.

In Germany, English requires a lot of hairdressers. Even a German-speaking barber, so what?

German female neighbor is 60 years old and has lived in a small town for 15 years, but every time she gets a haircut, she thinks about the same question: where to go? Who is the barber? My neighbor told me that the Russian hairdresser who used to cut her hair had resigned for two or three years and had not found a satisfactory hairdresser so far. Every time she spends more than 30 euros on a haircut, she always changes to a new barber shop and a new hairdresser. Once the barber cut her hair, and she was very dissatisfied. In fact, they all speak German, so they told the hairdresser the hairstyle she wanted, and the hairdresser readily agreed. But when "click" stopped and looked intently, the left and right sides were asymmetrical in length and uneven in thickness, and Liu Hai was too neat like a student ... Psychological embarrassment and remorse: Why did you come to this house to find this barber? Walk through two or three barbershops like this and go to a regret one. Now, my hair is long, but where to go? She complained to me: "The hairdresser doesn't seem to understand her ideas and requirements, and she can't always cut the hairstyle and effect she wants."

German hairdressers also have no patience to listen to customers' thoughts. When you come to my shop for a haircut, my hairdresser has the final say, not your customer, which is completely different from that in China. The German thinking logic is: Because my barber is professional and trained, your customers have to listen to me.

German hairdressers are not used to this habit in China. Is the barber shop run by Turks better? I learned the skills and habits of an indigenous barber once and vowed never to go again.

Not long after I arrived in Germany, a China introduced me to a Turkish barber shop near her home for a haircut.

The hairdresser is a Turkish woman, in her thirties, who has been in Germany for many years without wearing a headscarf. I told the Turkish woman: just keep it simple, and don't change your hairstyle. The Turkish girl didn't wait for me to finish, and the scissors began to fly over my head. As he cut it, he said, "You used to have an inconspicuous hairstyle, like a wig. I'll cut your hair short today, come back when your hair is longer, and I'll redesign a suitable hairstyle for you. "

After cutting, I looked up and saw myself in the mirror. I really want to dive underground. My hair is just over my ears, not too long or too short, not male or female, and my face is unusually full, like the moon of the fifteenth. I feel my age at once 10 years old, skipping the level of aunt and upgrading directly to grandma. I've never seen such an ugly hairstyle in my life. How dare you open a shop with this skill? Not as good as domestic street vendors. The natives are really "bold" and arrogant. The barber's scissors cut off my good mood.

I was depressed and didn't want to see anyone for more than a month. At that moment, I vowed never to go to the original barber shop to find unhappiness again. Foreigners are foreigners after all. They don't understand each other's language. Chicken and duck talk about it. Coupled with the consistent work style of the natives, they are given "two knives" and "two eyes". Without Jin Gangzuan, they dare not engage in porcelain work, and they have no habit of listening to customers' ideas. Anyway, the customer gives his hair to the barber as soon as he enters the door, and the customer has no autonomy.

Although hairdressers in Germany can't cut the hair styles that customers want, a tip of 10% can't be wrong. At that time, the tip for the natives was 1 euro. Give me a "granny" hairstyle. I was so angry that I had to give the barber two knives as tips against my will. That's ridiculous. Just like the property company in the community, no matter what the service is, the property fee must be paid. It seems that there are unreasonable places at home and abroad.

This haircut experience made me stop setting foot in the barber shop, and no matter whether it was German or native, I turned a blind eye, just like there was no barber shop in Germany. If you want a haircut, you must be self-reliant and force yourself to be a barber.

I asked China people in Germany how to solve the problem of haircut. Some can go back to China and change their faces every time they go back; Some international students cut each other's hair; Some people get help from their children, relatives and friends. In the past, when I saw someone returning from abroad to visit relatives, there was always a small question lingering in my mind: Why do people living abroad feel a little outdated in their hair styles? After living abroad for a period of time, I understood this problem.

No big deal. In the final analysis, it is cultural differences. Hair can be cut neatly, but cultural differences between the East and the West, China and other countries are difficult to match, values and aesthetics are different, and opinions and practices on some things are also very different, which is reflected in the fact that it is difficult to be satisfied with these little things. Barbers are just craftsmen, and their cultivation is not high enough to understand the aesthetics and requirements of Asians. Asians are, after all, a few foreigners in Europe, and the hairstyles under scissors naturally vary from culture to culture. No wonder barber shops opened by foreigners in Germany are blooming everywhere.

There are not many people in China, and it is impossible for a small town to have a barber shop run by China people. You must ask others and yourself for help to get a haircut. If people living abroad return to China, people at home will not be surprised by their unique hairstyle, which may be ruined, uneven in length or asymmetrical in left and right … because it is a DIY work.

Every time I get a haircut abroad, I always think of the scene of getting a haircut in China: the familiar red brick wall, the kind "you are here" ... there is always a special taste in my heart.