Korean Job Discussion Forums

[F!refly]

Every time I get my hair cut, I leave the salon looking not quite "finished." I'm wondering if this phenomenon is limited to the podunk salons where I go, or if it's Korea-wide.

The stylists will cut my hair (using those *&%!@*@& thinning shears way too much on my medium-thin white girl hair), dry it (although I had one ask me if I wanted it dried...um, duh?) and that's it. No product, no curling iron or straight iron, nada.

Like today. I went to the corner salon with a picture of Posh Spice (mock all you want - it's a cool 'do). The lady does her best, bless her heart, but by the end I was about to cry it looked so bad. BUT then I go home, spend three minutes with a straight iron, slap in a little product, and -- whaddya know? -- it's pretty cute!

It's just so weird to me, letting people walk out with their hair looking crappy when there are all these bottles of product sitting in plain sight. Is this something you're supposed to request? "Please make my hair look better when I leave than when I came in"??

[redeye]

You know, I have wondered the same thing. It seems not to matter if I pay 10k or 30k for my haircut--they barely dry it and then say, "ok", maybe slap a little 'essence' on it and I walk out looking horrible. I wonder if you have to pay extra here for styling? Or if they're just afraid to style a westerner's hair? In two years I have YET to walk out of a salon here feeling like my hair looks nice.
(Yeah, I always have to tell them to lay-off the thinning shears too. Medium-thin long hair. I understand they just don't know that doesn't work.)

[Joe666]

I'm going to chime in on this. I have absolutely no right to do so, I am way out of my league on this one, but believe I have the answer(S).

The Mongolian hair line and hair itself is different than the caucasian flavor. If you notice, most of the K-girls have long massive bangs that usually end right at their eyebrows. Their hairline (in front) is much higher than the caucaziod type. Their hair is absurdly strait. Most have very coarse hair, like horse hair. Their hair does not need the attention that you caucaziod's need. also, look at the shape of their melons. The top back portion sticks up. I believe this causes the front hairline to be pulled up (the reason for the long bangs). Every girl I have ever seen that is school age, has the exact same haircut. Some clip it here, some there, but the basis is exactly the same. The hair stylist's just don't know how to properly manage caucasion hair. Mongloian hair is basic, simple and there's no need for fancy-shmancy products to finish it up.

Holy Cow! I just wrote a post that makes me out to be a closet case and a pedophile, simultaneously!! Not to mention the fact that I will probably get slaughtered by the crowd here at Dave's for spewing rhetoric I had no right to spew!!

Could be interesting!!

[English Matt]

I only use Toni and Guy hair salons as I figure a run of the mill Korean place is not going to have any inkling about how to cut caucasian hair. I was warned by my stylist in the UK that asian hair is (as seen under a microscope) flat whilst caucasian hair is rounder and has more volume. Korean hairstylists use those thinning shears because if they use scissors on asian hair they cannot blend in the different lines that are created.

Toni and Guy is a British company and the stylists are all trained at their academy in Seoul...in turn all of the stylists at their academy have been taught by stylists from Britain. Whilst not perfect, they do an alright job on my hair and the guy who has been cutting my hair (actually using scissors for the most part) for the last year has been getting better each time I go there (with the occassional cockup which I put down to having caught him on an off day).

Additionally they always wash my hair and slap some product in it before I leave. I actually wish they wouldn't as I bring my own hair product with me and prefer to style my own hair rather than have it done for me. The female customers I see in there don't leave unfinished as it were and many seem to get their hair straightened, permed, washed, dried etc before they head on out the door.

Yes, I really am this vain about my hair.

[Carla]

[Carla]

[tzechuk]

I used to have a great hair stylist - Korean. Then she got divorced and moved to a different part of town and I have never seen her again...

Since then I get my hair done in Hong Kong, where I go every 6 months.

[oskinny1]

[anjinsan]

I love getting my hair cut in Korea!!! (I'm a dude)
The lady cuts every hair on my head, does the tickley cut with the
comb-jawed shears; gives my mop a good shampooing with an amazing 1-2 minute skull massage, then dries it and does some kind of art with the hair gel. This last part is funny for me, because my hair always looks lioke something out of Edward Scissorhands when I walk out--totally hilarious--but I just run home and wash out the gel and it looks great.

All this for under 10,000 won . . . a darn good deal!!!

I love haircuts here!!!!

[benji]

[catchshime]

Two words: Crew Cut.

I'm Asian-American and I plan on keeping my hair short and clean, my friends and I love it. In Korea, my mother says I look like an ex-convict. Perfect, now all I need is some tattoos in random spots (maybe it could say "Love Me" in Korea on my heart), tacky chains, and to start chain smoking and glaring at people for no reason whatsoever. Oh and I should rice out my Hyundai Tiburon.

Point is, I am not a fan of Korean male fashion whatsoever. But I'm American so there you go.

Sorry, can't help you much on the hair advice front. But some girls really do look nice with crew-cuts.......just look at Britney.

[DrOctagon]

[nourozi]

I just use a number 4 shaver and my co teacher couldnt believe I cut my own hair. Im awesome.

[DAC]

Most Korean hairstylists just aren't sure how to make a haircut look good on a western head. I've had years of bad haircuts here, but also in fairness, unless the shop back home is in a big city where there are plenty of Asians who come to get their hair done, the hairstylist won't know how to make Asian hair look good. My wife, never difficult to please, couldn't stand her hair for our Canadian wedding...the stylist just had little to no experience cutting Asian hair.