Most women would agree that it's hard enough to get the haircut you want at a salon where the hairdresser speaks your language. Imagine the difficulty in communicating a new hairstyle you want with someone in another language altogether.
My few German classes covered things like greetings (Gruss Gott!), commenting on the weather (Es ist regnet!), how to order in a restaurant (Ich moechte eine pizza mit salami, bitte) and how to talk about your family (Ich habe einen Katze). They didn't teach me how to ask for the bottom to be trimmed, layers throughout and angled bangs. I know Germany has its share of cows, but do they have a word for cowlick?
The danger of trying to prepare your requests through something like Google Translate is that if you put in the phrase "bottom to be trimmed" it might spit out a phrase that has you asking for your butt to be made smaller. I'm terrified of how it might translate "bangs."
Fortunately, I have found a fantastic salon where a picture really is worth a thousand words. The hairdressers speak almost no English, and my German is still embarrassing. So I simply sift through Internet photos of the hairstyle I want, print them out and show them to the stylist. And she gets it exactly right -- usually better -- every time.
I'm certainly not paying Fantastic Sam's prices. But a really good haircut that's going to last me 3-4 months is more than worth 40 euros ($58).
Well, it was more than worth 40 euros a few months ago.
Dang dollar.
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