Haircuts

Struggling to break through the language barrier? Maybe we can help. Heard, seen or said something that made you giggle? We'd love to hear about it.

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martyn94
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Haircuts

Post by martyn94 »

I long resisted getting my hair cut in France, finding it difficult enough to communicate with barbers in English, but for the last few years I have had no choice. The aesthetic possibilities are very limited: I have very little hair, but such as I have is wild unless tamed. So it's basically a choice between short, very short and scalped.

I would prefer something at the marginally longer end of the scale, but how do you ask for it? I ask particularly because I was done today by a barber I haven't used before: he said "un peu court?" in an interrogative tone, I nodded, and he went at me with his electric clippers like I was a newly-inducted GI.

It's no kind of tragedy, and my grooming bills will be v limited for quite a while. But it would be nice to have some more effective input.
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opas
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Post by opas »

:wink:

where are you? I know you wont need a cut for a while, but my daughter is a mobile hairdresser, she is English .
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property management, changeovers, garden maintenance, no job too small. Highchair, travelcot, pram hire.
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sue and paul
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Post by sue and paul »

Ha, I know what you mean. Add into the equation a hairdresser who has understood your needs perfectly, but then half-way through the cut clearly isn't doing as you agreed. I asked about it, and she said she'd had a better idea. Honestly!!
Presumably your hair will now grow a bit. Why not take a selfie when you feel it looks OK, and show it to your hairdresser?
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opas
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Post by opas »

Re read your post....he went at me with electric clippers....!!
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Owens88
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Post by Owens88 »

Almost every time I go to a different UK hairdresser we have the same farce explaining the desired length at the sides ('over the ear sir ?' 'No, overlapping the top of the ear...' 'Oh, on the ear' 'well you can shave those hairs as well if you want').

In France, Spain and many other non-Brit countries I have no problem. They ask and we both point or gesture and everything works fine.

:)
John
www.Goodviews.co.uk

Vernet Les Bains and East Midlands
Owens88
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Post by Owens88 »

And, they insist on putting in the grey dye without asking.
John
www.Goodviews.co.uk

Vernet Les Bains and East Midlands
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Kate
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Post by Kate »

Why not take a selfie when you feel it looks OK, and show it to your hairdresser?
Or show it to us first and we'll give you some fashion tips and useful vocab to use at the hairdressers!! :lol:
And, they insist on putting in the grey dye without asking.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Actually, think I did a vocab a few years ago for PO Life with hairdresser vocab. Will see if I can find it and post it here.
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Kate
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Post by Kate »

Here it is!

We’ve found an English speaking hairdresser!
If the language barrier leaves you looking more like Olive Oyl than Oliva Newton John when you visit the hairdressers, pop eye, I mean pop in to see Samantha, English speaking hairdresser in Cabestany.

Useful vocab
HAIR
haircut - une coupe
shampoo - le shampooing (shom-pwan)
conditioner - l’après-shampooing
highlights - les mèches
perm - une permanente
layered - dégradé
sideboards - les pattes
fringe – une frange
parting - une raie
blow dry – un brushing
hair ends - les pointes
Would this suit me? - Ca m’irait ?
I’d like the colour/roots touching up. - Je voudrais refaire ma couleur/racines.

BEAUTY
treatments- les soins
make-up - le maquillage
hair removal (legs/eyebrows/bikini/underarm) – l’épilation (jambes/sourcils/maillot/aisselles) moisturising cream - une crème hydratante.
eye cream - un soin contour des yeux.
facial - un soin de visage
(dry/oily/combinination) skin – la peau (seche/ grasse/ mixte / peau sèche / peau sensible ou irritable
anti wrinkle treatment – un soin anti rides
beauty sleep - sommeil réparateur
And if all else fails…..
plastic surgeon - un chirugien esthétique
martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

Kate wrote:Here it is!

We’ve found an English speaking hairdresser!
If the language barrier leaves you looking more like Olive Oyl than Oliva Newton John when you visit the hairdressers, pop eye, I mean pop in to see Samantha, English speaking hairdresser in Cabestany.

Useful vocab
HAIR
haircut - une coupe
shampoo - le shampooing (shom-pwan)
conditioner - l’après-shampooing
highlights - les mèches
perm - une permanente
layered - dégradé
sideboards - les pattes
fringe – une frange
parting - une raie
blow dry – un brushing
hair ends - les pointes
Would this suit me? - Ca m’irait ?
I’d like the colour/roots touching up. - Je voudrais refaire ma couleur/racines.

BEAUTY
treatments- les soins
make-up - le maquillage
hair removal (legs/eyebrows/bikini/underarm) – l’épilation (jambes/sourcils/maillot/aisselles) moisturising cream - une crème hydratante.
eye cream - un soin contour des yeux.
facial - un soin de visage
(dry/oily/combinination) skin – la peau (seche/ grasse/ mixte / peau sèche / peau sensible ou irritable
anti wrinkle treatment – un soin anti rides
beauty sleep - sommeil réparateur
And if all else fails…..
plastic surgeon - un chirugien esthétique
Bravo! But too late for me, and I never looked much cop in a bikini even at my best.

I love words like "brushing": I once spent a long time (both of us having benefitted fully from the "troisième mi-temps") trying to persuade a friend that "rugbyman" was not a well-formed English word. His attitude, not without reason, was that it clearly wasn't French, so it had to be English. Et voilà.
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