Haircut

I have needed a haircut for quite some time now, but as I'm in France and don't know any good hairdressers, or the appropriate way to ask for a simple haircut, I had been putting it off. Finally I decided it was time to get an appointment. My roommate had her haircut and had quite an adventure and a few stray snips of the scissors, so I just decided my best bet was to go to a school where hairdressers train. I figured if they are going to screw it up, might as well do it for cheap. After going by the L'Oreal school twice I finally figured out that it is closed for good, so I went to a different school by my place. I went in and the guy at the desk was youngish and I asked him "Je voudrais prendre un rendez-vous pour un coup de cheveux." (I would like to take an appointment for a hair cut) The guy looked at me like I had purple hair (ok, not like that because people here really do have purple hair, but he looked at me like I was an alien) Then he freaked out and asked another guy in the salon if he spoke English. Ugh. How frustrating. What I said was in French and it wasn't difficult French he just got lost in the accent. So I tried again slower, and finally they figured out I just wanted an appointment. They had an opening at 3:30. After perusing the bookstore for a while, I went back.
The same guy that was at the desk was the one cutting my hair. He apparently didn't think I could understand his language because he physically directed me places, like taking my shoulders and leading me to the hair washing station. Then we went over to the chair for the cut and he asked me what I wanted. I held up the ends of my hair and just made a little cutting motion. I told him in French that I just wanted a little off the ends. He looked at me dumbfounded. He understood, but he was really disappointed I think. He wanted to do something more fun than a really small trim. So he made a little cut and showed me how much he cut off. Perfect. I was a sucker and did the blow dry and "brush" which cost me more, but my hair looked pretty good. All in all, good choice.