Two days ago i talked about the prevalence of the three dollar hair cut places, which has led to many salons and upscale barbershops lowering their prices. Well salons are still around and I don't think they are going anywhere because...
Girls must have highlights in their hair. Having straight black hair is illegal in Taiwan. 95% of women have brown highlights in their hair, with the rest having their whole hair dyed brown. Although I often think that if the idea is that black hair is boring cause it's what everybody has, than now isn't it boring that everybody has brown hair? Shouldn't everybody go back to black?
Since black hair color is illegal, you'd imagine that straight hair is as well, and you'd be right. Perms used to be big in Taiwan, but i think people have gradually started to feel that for the most part Asians don't look so great with curly hair. Instead now what people do is make it so that the lower part of their hair has one big wave in it.
Taiwan also has a cultural belief that if you let somebody take advantage of you, than you are a good person (i'm not exaggerating, that is a true part of Taiwanese culture). So often people will go to a salon and get up-sold even though that's not what they want, and even when it looks bad, they will keep going back to that stylist. People have a hard enough time breaking up with their bf/gf, so you can imagine how impossible it is to break up with their stylist.
As for the men, well if you are between 15 and 35 and you don't have a hair that style that looks like a highly stylized female's hair style, than you are not cool. Not only are you not cool, but you're not a tough guy either. It's amusing to see movies and shows in asia where all the tough guys have the most flamboyant hair cuts. it's very hard to take them seriously, and really you can't because in Taiwan the true tough guys wouldn't be caught dead with a hair style like that.
But because of the demand for male styles, men's and unisex salons are always going to have business. If you are a guy how can you expect to get a girl if you don't look like a girl. And if you are woman how can you expect to get a guy if you don't look like a foreigner. Yay for being what you're not!
Above is one of the most widespread salons around the country. I always smile when I see things named after people's English name. This is because people very often change their English name, so I think naming something after yourself is a very big deal, it means you are stuck with that name for life.
