Last Saturday night, my father called me. After a few words, he asked, "did you go to get hair cut during the first month? You should go to do it tonight. It's Day of Loong Head-Raising, do you know that? How many people gathering here, I have been waiting for one hour in the shop." Here he was talking about Chinese lunar calendar month. We do have a word for seasons like spring, summer and so on, but no such a word for each month like January or June. We call them Month One, Month Two...Kind of easy? However it's a totally different story when coming to relatives in a family. We have a precise word for each person. For example, ge/jie means brother/sister older than you, while di/mei younger than you. Let leave those stuff. Maybe you already wonder what is loong? There is no such a word in dictionary. Yes, somebody made it and I borrowed. Usually dragon is used at the place but they are really different objects. Loong is a holy symbol created long time ago and consisted of snake as body(explains long),eagle as paws, deer as horn, lion as head and fish as tail. Chinese emperors call themselves child of loong whose pattern could be found everywhere when you visit forbidden city in Beijing where emperors lived there during Ming and Qing Dynasties. I do not know the connection between Day of Loong Head-Raising and hair-cutting which is like a mystery the ages always know and do not even explain that to you but just tell you they know it long time ago. All you can do is to obey it and get wishes of fortune from it. Finally I asked my girlfriend to complete this ritual as a compromise.

Some days after I arrived in US several years ago, I planed to go to a barber shop but confused of how to describe my hair to be cut, neither too short nor too long, so turned to one of my Chinese friends for help who already lived in town for several years. "No. 10", he replied, "just say No. 10. pretty sure." Things went well. The only strange thing I found was that no hair-washing service and a powerful pump was used to blow my hair to clean the residue reminding me of a mechanical shop I used to take a class. I did not talk during the cutting avoid interrupting the delicate work , actually kind of enjoying the moment like a piece of botany being shaped by a gardener. No. 10 was like a motto to me in salon for two years until finally I got tired of it and wanted to have a change, "how about cut it to like one month ago." Not bad result.

A little bit of economics

Even in Shanghai I still could find a place to have hair cut at price of lowest to 10rmb while in US it is around $10 plus $1 or $2 tips. Think of the exchange rate about 1:6. However an iPhone 6 plus starting from $749 plus varying taxes in US comparing 6088rmb including taxes in China.

Best salesman

As mentioned above, those barbers(we call wash-cut-blow guy as a joke) hardly make money from male customer, but they always have plenty of preys, yes, ladies. Straight to curl, curl to ionic straight, black to brown, brown to black, and the price jumps up from 100rmb at once. At this point, the two countries come to the same line.