Living the dream - my first Italian haircut

On Thursday of this past week I had my first Italian hair appointment. Another first in Venice for me! I have to say, I was a bit apprehensive. I've gone to the same place to have my hair done for the last nine years in Ellicott City, Maryland. The wonderful women at Envy Salon certainly can work magic with hair, at least they have with mine all these years!

Finding a new hair salon was a big deal. I figured I had two courses of action I could take. A) If I found someone who had a great haircut, I would stop her and ask her for the name of her salon, or B) just take pot luck and make an appointment at a local place, and see how things turned out. I ended up not doing either! Mike had found a salon the week before and had his hair cut at that place. He liked the guy (Simone), so I went to the same place and made an appointment for myself.

I took the formula for my hair color that my previous salon had been using, hoping this would help out some. I didn't have too many expectations, but one that I did have was that I would not be walking out of this salon with Italian red hair. For some reason, a very mahogany-red color is very popular here. It's not a color I would ever want on my head, so I was very hopeful that this guy understood me enough. My Italian is limited!

This salon is quite different from what I was used to. First, the owner is the only person in there. Simone does not have a staff of stylists, nor does he have any shampoo girls. He is it. Also it's a very tiny place- one sink. He does it all, from the appointments to the shampooing.

Simone doesnt speak much English, and I don't speak much Italian, but he understood that I had a hair color formula with me. He explained that he doesnt use the same kind of product, although the formula I had was for an Italian brand. I told Simone I didn't think it mattered, as long as I didn't leave with Red hair, pointing to the sample hair color he had in a big book. He understood!

Things went pretty much as normal, how different could color and shampoo be, afterall? But the haircutting was where I got my next big shock. He dryed off my hair, then goes off to a little back room. He came back with a holster like thing that he straps around his waist, and in it are an assortment of scissors and combs. He straps this on his hip like he's getting ready for a gunfight! And it gets better. He picks out a pair of scissors, positions the end of the scissor on this thumb, and begins to twirl it exactly as a gunfighter would twirl a pistol! I've never seen anything quite like it- all I could do was laugh! He got a huge grin on his face when he saw my reaction, and proceeded to whip that pair of scissors around on his hand as he made each cut. Actually, it was Edward Scissorhands-esque! He wasn't doing this for show, like bartenders do throwing bottles as they mix drinks, this just was his technique.

Simone actually looks you would imagine an Italian hairdresser to look like - his own long hair is pulled up in a ponytail, and he has a little goatee. However, once he started doing his Edward Scissorhands impression, I thought, good god, I hope I have some sort of decent cut when he is done. My worries were unfounded!

I left Simone's studio with a great cut, and perfect color. Not to mention a new experience. I've found my hair stylist!