Our First Time....

 

One of the things I was asked prior to leaving Seattle was, "How will you deal with haircuts?" After avoiding this dilemma as long as we could, both Kim and I were more than ready to take our chances. With Jean's companionship/encouragement, we headed out to explore our options. In our wanderings, we had made note of several salons so we headed to an area where we had seen two a few doors apart. The shops and hairdressers are usually open during the rest hours, probably a busy time for them; as in the US, they are closed on Mondays.

Once arriving at our destination, we three walked back and forth, in front of the window, pacing, peeking in, looking for other customers and reading the sign showing us their prices. After a minute we decided to head on in to ask questions and "feel the place out". Upon entering, we were greeted by an animated Samuele who, with a quick "dicami" (which I've learned is like, "talk to me" or "may I help you?") invited us in.

All I can say is that we lucked out and hit the jackpot. Samuele and his other two co-workers were full of laughter and appeared delighted that we'd "chosen" them. In the beginning, there was the where are you from and why are you here? They laughed and laughed about us being in Alessandria. It was like "of all the places in Italy you could chose from, why h e r e? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Throughout the visit they laughed and joked with us and their other customers. I let them know that it was Kim's birthday and right away Samuele kissed her on the cheek, then the other two hairdressers came over and gave her big birthday kisses, too. Then they were off again trying to sing her "haffy birfday" until I was almost hysterical with laughter because they were critiquing each others' pronunciation. And, well, truthfully, they all were a bit off. When Jean started taking pictures, their enthusiasm was amped up even higher with competition to be in the picture.

Happily, we were both just fine with our cuts and relieved to know that we'd found our "place" for our time here. As we left, there was lots of kissing cheek to cheek (including Jean who they included even though she was just the observer)with their best wishes for us to return soon. The three of us departed, laughing out the door, having never having had so much fun getting a haircut.