Italian Style Haircut

So today I got my haircut for the second time since I have been here in Italy. The first time was at the beginning of this semester after letting it grow out for about 5 months, but today I decided it was just beginning to look a little too long.

Today when I went to get my haircut I had somewhat of a revelation on the differences between American culture and Italian culture. I haven't talked about this before on my blog, but in order to graduate a year early like I am going to I had to take one more marketing class. But because I was going to be here all year, the only way I could do this was by completing an independent study while I was here. So that is exactly what I am doing, and my independent study is on the differences in sales cultures in America and Italy, and one aspect of my paper is recognizing the overall cultural differences between American culture and Italian culture. Here is a perfect example of the differences;

Allora, today when I walked in to get my haircut they welcomed me by taking my scarf, jacket, and cardigan and followed it up by seating me in a chair and bringing me a caffe! Yes that is right, for no reason except that I am awesome they brought me a caffe to drink while I waited for the guy to cut my hair. I don't know why it isn't this way in America, but it was a pleasant surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed! After living in Italy for 7 months now, my need / desire for coffee on an average day his rose dramatically, therefor when I was asked if I wanted a caffe my reaction was something like this;

After my caffe I spent about 5 minutes trying to translate what I wanted with my hair; potentially the hardest translation ever because I know no words that have to do with cutting hair, and didn't bring my laptop like last time!

Then the boring part; I sat there while the guy cut my hair. We actually chatted a while about America and Italy and traveling and it allowed me to practice some of my Italian for my test tomorrow.

After he was done cutting my hair the nice lady shampooed and washed my hair a second time! It was lovely and I enjoyed it!

Moral of the story: get your hair cut in Italy!

All in all it was a very successful trip today; one that I will remember until I forget about it.