Bohemian Mr. Snip Cut

Finally relented and got a haircut today... nothing fancy, just trimmed off 5 inches, but no one noticed any difference, haha.

Still won't let just about anyone touch my hair, heh. Wish I could go back to my usual hairdresser in KL... or better yet, the one I've always been going to since I was a teenager, Mr. Snip Cut. He reminds me of Edward Sissorhands...

Anyway, I wrote something about him about 4 years back (omigod, how time flies). I'm hoping that he's happy, wherever he is now. I hope he knows that I miss him, that he knows how much I appreciate him being very much like a father to me when I was growing up.

*holds up a drink*

Here's to Bohemian Mr. Snip Cut.

* * *
November 3, 2001

Today, I went out with my friend Shy Lee, on a girl's day out. I dragged her along with me to the hairdresser's. He's a very nice, if not slightly feminine, guy. And he calls me 'girl'.

I stepped into the salon.

"Girl...aiyah, so long never see you..." he waves his hand about as he talks "...oh, my gosh...look at your hair! SOOOO out of shape! Good thing you come today! Come sit down" he pats the chair as he leads me to it. I sit, staring at myself in the mirror. 'Is my hair THAT bad?' I ask myself.

My thoughts were interrupted by his fluffing my hair about. "Tsk, tsk tsk" he goes, as he parts it. "Tsk tsk tsk" he goes again, as he examines the ends. Like a mouse, really. It was hilarious watching him.

"Girl!! Your hair arr...so dry! Didn't I give you some hair capsules during your last visit? When was that, May? Hrm, see? So long didn't come and treat your hair already! Just look! You look like a lion!" he exclaims.

Yes, I haven't been having my hair professionally cut for almost six months now. Shy Lee or Bee Khuan occasionally trim my hair, because I'm always too busy to spend at least 3 hours at the salon. Today I've finally managed to squeeze out some afternoon time for myself, and Shy Lee of course, I dragged along to keep me company.

"Here.." he shoves some snacks under my nose "..eat something. Um, you know, girl, I've been reading the book that you gave me, I like it very much lah." He was complaining of being bored, and I gave him a book, something to do with candles and aromateraphy that I got from MPH. I knew he'd like it.

"And.." he peers into the mirror, looking at my face "I've been taking up the Chinese Face Fortune reading...learnt it from my grandma, and I also bought a book on that" I raised an eyebrow. "Here, I show you." he says as he takes out the book from the counter. It was a book by Peter Shen, 'Face Fortunes'.

"Come, girl, I read your face" he offers. I smile and nod, "Sure!"

"Ah...you have a peach blossom forehead...means that you have good social graces, and..." he winks "you're very flirtacious", he says, almost triumphantly. I look helplessly at Shy Lee. She just shrugged.

He continues. "Short brows. Youthful. High cheekbones, hrm, you're very adventurous, right? Mg chai si. I can see that in your eyes - they're so alive. Your eyes got charisma, see? they radiate energy!" At that time I was almost twirling with wonder. My eyes? Radiating energy? Ooh...hrm, very good fortunes, huh? I wriggled my eyebrows at Shy Lee's reflection in the mirror. She rolled her eyes.

"You got fish mouth" he says. I almost stood up! "FISH MOUTH!?" I exclaim. "What do I look like to you, a fish?!" I was really pissed off at that remark. Shy Lee was laughing hysterically behind. I was so...piqued! "Girl, cool down lah...see? Fish mouth people never think before they say anything. And lose temper very fast, like you're doing. Now sit properly!" he commanded. "Sorry" I mumble. He grins at me and pinches my cheeks. "Aiyyah, I not angry with you lah, you're my favourite, what!" Why he says that, I never will know.

"Your personality got a lot of water.." he says. Water? I have no idea what he's talking about. But best not aggravate him, he was already snipping enthusiastically at my hair. "Girl, your hair, very dry!" he says for the hundredth time. "How come not as much as last time already? What shampoo you use?" I told him that I had ran out of the shampoo I bought from him, and was using the shampoo that my dad brought back from hotels. Without conditioner.

Let's just say that he almost fainted. Shy Lee was already looking as if she was ready to dart out of the door, poor girl. My hairdresser's a bit of a dramatist, you see. He sports waist long, healthy hair that I wish I had.

Scolded me like mad for that. "Whatever you do, never, ever, use hotel shampoo, too harsh!" he warns. "But I ran out of shampoo! And anyway, it was only for 2 weeks" I explain. "2 WEEKS? Oh my God!" I think he considers himself the patron God of tresses, the knight in shining armour to protect hair from being abused by harsh elements - like hotel shampoo.

I told him I wanted to straighten my hair.

"WHAT?! No no no. Cannot. Your hair has such a nice wave...you know that some women would kill for such a wave? If you insist, I'm going to charge you RM300 for hair straightening!"

"You can't do that!" I protest. "Oh yes, I can. I like your wave. Okaylah, fine. I won't straighten your hair, but I'll cut it in such a way that it's not so 'khiau' [wavy]" he compromised. I smiled my sweetest smile.

"You know, you've got very nice lips." he compliments. I smile wider. "Only your teeth a bit yellow, that's why lah, drink coffee some more.." a scrowl quickly replaced the smile...and he had just offered me coffee a few minutes before. Ishh...

*rolls eyes*

"Anyway, your lips right, like I said, fish mouth..." I glare at him, and he ignores me and goes on "you tend to get whatever you want with little effort, that's why you find life so empty, because you never have to work hard for anything you want" I protest, but he looks at me with a look what shut me up, and at the back, I hear Shy Lee say an 'Amen'. Such friend I have. *sulks*

Actually, come to think about it, it's kind of true.

I found out that I came out first in class today. Shy Lee told me, passing my report card for me to see. I stared at it with disbelief. How could it be, when I didn't touch my books at all, ponteng-ed school and slept in class? How could it be, when I just broke up with my boyfriend 2 weeks before the finals, and was moping around zombie-like, and wrote so many posts for the list during exam week? I was expecting to fail, not get first position in class!

Perhaps it's true. I like my lips, then. Heh, born lucky, aren't you just SO jealous? *gloats*

Since when did Chinese face fortune become so accurate? Or perhaps it's because he already knows me very well. I've been going to him since I was 15, and well, I talk a lot to him. He's a really nice guy, and a very good confidant. Hairdressers are like that, I guess. He's also my so-called psychoanalyst. He's took up a bit of psychology when he was younger, but switched over to hairdressing when he found out that it was his passion. He turned bohemian after he dropped out of a university in US. But he's really cool.

By that time he was already done trimming and shaping my bushy hair. He started to blow dry it.

"Girl..." he shouts over the noise of the blow dryer. "See? So much better, right?" He grabs a brushful of hair and starts to run the nozzle along the length of them. Hot. He goes on doing that until my hair was completely dry and nicely shaped.

Oh yeah, and you ought to see him blow dry my hair. As I said, he uses gestures freely, almost too much sometimes, and behind, Shy Lee was almost turning blue trying to hold in her laughter. He looked as if he was trying to flap his non-existant wings!

After my hair was smooth and shiny and shaped, he gave me a jar of hair capsules to use every night, and some cream to style my hair or something. Smells...weird...he says it's some herb concoction that he made up. He howled with laughter when he saw the _expression on my face when I smelled and looked at it. It looks...disgusting, and it smells like... clove, olive oil, rose, and something I cannot put my finger on, combined.

So I paid for the haircut and he closed shop, as it was already 6 pm. The 3 of us went out to Panorama, a hotel coffee house where we had our dinner. He gave us a treat, cos he said that it's been a long time since he's gone out with two beautiful young girls. Heh.

I mean, some might think that he's seedy and all, but really, he's one nice guy. A real comic, if you ask me. Perhaps he a little eccentric, but it's this eccentricity that really makes him special. He scares all the older women, they think he's gay, but he isn't. He has a daughter my age living in America [he married an American, but they divorced when his daughter was 3] I met her when she was visiting him last year. And he told us today that he was going to migrate to Australia in the summer.

Often, we don't really mix around with people who are different from us. And you know what? We lose out when we don't. It's these people who are the ones that really broaden our horizons and perspectives, and makes us see things in the way we never thought possible before. He was the one who encouraged me to write. Once, I left my schoolbag in his salon, and he went through my essay books, and told me that I had talent. He said that I wrote amusing stories, with a lot of whimsical illusions in them. And I believed him, and started writing. He taught me to dance, and to dance freely, with abandon. He taught me so much.

I pity the people who think he's weird and never really took the time to get to know him. If they did, they'd find that underneath that weird, eccentric exterior, there was a sensitive man inside, an artist who paints abstract art in beautiful colours. They'd find in him a loving and kind father figure who sometimes dashes out fine words of wisdom and deep thoughts. They'd find in him a person who'd patiently explain the most abstract verse of poetry till you see the meaning of it. They'd find a whole new world opened up to them, a world they'd never imagine existed, a wealth of eclectic knowledge.

And as for Mr. Snip-cut. [He insists I call him that].

Here's to you, Jesus loves you more than you will know. =)

~-~
[PS: That's a line from the song 'Mrs Robinson' by Simon and Garfunkel. I changed Mrs. Robinson to Mr. Snip-Cut]

[edit:: he's long since embraced his real self and admitted that he is gay... which makes him happier since] ^_^