Michelle (Ni) and I decided to go and get haircuts today. Alex took us a place on campus where he assured us they were very good.

Although neither of the hairdressers spoke English, Alex helped translate we wanted our hair trimmed and get one red highlight.

Getting a haircut here was a much different experience than getting a haircut at home.

When the hairdresser highlighted my hair, he placed the dye in my hair and then wrapped it with newspaper.

At home, the hairdresser would have placed tinfoil strips into my hair and would dye the hair from the root to the tip.

Unfortunately, neither of the hairdressers understood they had to put bleach into our hair in order to make the color stand out brighter, so my hair color turned out light brown instead of red.

Michelle’s hair turned out bright red closer to the bottom, but she had a highlight previously.

Getting our hair cut a bit scary, considering we barely knew what they were asking and Alex kept fooling around and saying different things to them in Chinese.

However, our haircuts turned out how we wanted them, despite my brown highlight.

Our experience was even better when we had to pay. It cost us each 30 yuan, which converts to about $5. People who work in China do not expect to get tipped, either.

— Katie Haughey, a junior psychology major