Headrushed in Hongdae

Andrea and I went to "Headrush," a hairdresser's in Hongdae. Last week I did an editing/writing bit for a new as of now not yet published magazine "Napkin" our friend CD is co-publishing. He's also the marketing manager for "Headrush" - that's how I ended up with a voucher for a complete hair makeover there. It was my payment, sort of, although I did it as a favour to him. He's so cute, no one can say no to him.

Johnny, the colourist, and Min, "the cutter," knew exactly what they were doing. Their claim to "have been educated at Tony & Guy and Vidal Sassoon in London" seems more than likely to be true. In the past, although I spent indecent amounts of money on hair styling in Korea (at both branches of Tony & Guy, plus a place in the Intercontinental hotel, plus a place in Itaewon) I've never been happy with my dos. Last New Year's (2oo5) I came out of a Tony and Guy looking like Rod Stewart - and crying. Trust me, sugars, if you could have seen me you would not have thought me sexy.
I decided that whatever the Headrushers do to my head, they could not possibly do any worse than the others.
It was good of me to stick out my neck for the guys there. I wanted to get rid of the blonder than blonde hair ends and mousey roots. My hair grows too fast, and within 2 weeks of a visit to a salon, the root-ends contrast, assisted with my unruly wavy-curly hair, starts making me look ill-groomed and tired. Johnny got the colour I wanted - it looks a lot like the colour I got after I had lost my early childhood blondeness. Min shaped it beautifully performing magic with his scissors, cutting this way and that. There were also two young apprentices who did their best in moisturizing, washing, conditioning, blowdrying, combing, brushing.... Four pairs of beautiful male hands fighting one messy female head! How could I have possibly won? I lost! I most gloriously did. And here's the proof, in the photograph. This is what I look like several hours later, after walking windy smoggy streets of Seoul and surviving a long sweaty overcrowded bus ride home from Hongdae.
O.K., O.K, I admit, the model is a bit enhanced: I did change into a girly fuscia T-shirt and I did smear my lips in redder- than- red red. I made a couple of pictures for Andrea who had to leave early and didn't get to see my "after" self. She insisted. I promised. Which is just as well, being the narcisus that I am. So, my dear 4 readers on 4 continents (it is 4 now with Clare in South Africa, providing she finds internet access on her aunt's game reserve and the time to read my ramblings amidst all that animal coralling she's probably doing) what do you think?

A mug shot

Too bad it won't look like this tomorrow morning, or any other morning. Perhaps if I could adopt the four men from "Headrush" and have them devote their lives to grooming me....Just an idea. Before that happens, I'll just be my usual scruffy messy morning self. At least I have a photo to cherish....Thanks, Andrea, for the idea. Now, the do is immortalized.

One of the many 'talent demonstrations' performed daily in Seoul in crowded areas such as Dongdaemun shopping district. These girls were oblivious to the minus temperature and they drew quite a crowd.  

God is watching us. A church on a hill close to Hannam Station, Line 1.  

A Sunday in Seoul

The day after the hike, in spite of not drinking, I woke up tired, stiff and a bit on the cranky side. After sipping coffee with Jiwon till about 2:00 p.m., thought it was time to do some work in my office. Alas, couldn't make myself do anything. Instead, I went for a walk along Hangang. I got off Line 4 at Ichon intending to walk all the way to the Martyrs' s Shrine close to Hapjeon, my favourite 'thinking ground.' Not having anticipated the cold unforgiving wind, I had to give up the walk. My hair was still wet from the late shower and my head was freezing. I sat for a while by the river, watching the unusally blue water and fathers and sons flying kites and runnin along the bank. Before my nose reached the falling off state, I heade back to the subway and chose to try the new aqua subway line that took me to Hannam Station and subsequently to the Hannam market. I was a good responsibel shopeer who spent only about 20,000 won (my usual trip to this market costs around 100,000) and chose to ride back home on a bus.
I got off the bus at Dongdaemun stadium that was its usual crazy shoppers and hoppers mecca. It was as bright as in a Vegas casino. Young 'talents' were braving the cold performing difficult dances on numerous stages placed in the area specifically for these "demonstrations" and sometimes for appearances of famous singers.

Dobongsan, Sat. March 18th. Our first break, right before we hit some scary rocks.

Prayers and drummers. There were many people praying in a way that combines shamanist and buddhist traditions. These two women were drumming, singing and swaying in front of some kind of shrine on Dobongsan.

Jiwon's "last" hike

She is at it again, my friend Jiwon, I mean: about to go back home to New York and is using her "but, it's my last time" line to make me do things that I wouldn't or couldn't do otherwise. I wasn't going to hike yesterday. My office and my house and me in general are quite messy. I was going to use the weekend to take care of stuff, lots of stuff: organize my papers, toss out the rotting veggies in and stinky cheese from my fridge, do the long 0ver-due laundry, clip toe- and fingernails - that kind of stuff. Alas, it was to be Jiwon's last hike, and friends being more important than unmessing the mess, I went hiking on Dobongsan.

I felt quite tired throughout the day and quite scared at some hairy spots. At one point we came across a bunch of really scary rocks, the type that you can conquer somehow while going up but can't figure out how to go down w/o falling and breaking a limb or two. I managed somehow sliding on the whole length of my body relying basically on sheer hope for the best. As I was blindly feeling the smooth rock for any hint of support, I was cursing aloud and wondering how on earth I manage to find myself in such situations. What infuriates me even more is that the others see this obvious life and limb endangerment as something normal. You should see Korean hikers, visored ajummas pulling incredibel stunts of recklessness on the rocks. Incredible!

In the end, i still managed to get the usual after-hike high, as I always do. Also, I earned my pair of socks for the 4th consecutive hike. Four Saturday of sweat and tears for a pair of socks. A fair deal, indeed.

After a modest dinner of some tofu soup and 2 bowls of dongdong ju (only 2 in keeping with the promise to mysef to go easy on boozing for a few months or the rest of my life, whichever proves easier to achieve). Jiwon came to my house to pick up her bag that she had left there the night before. Since it was only 8, we decided to watch a movie. Oh, god, Henry James' novles should not be turned into movie scripts. "The Golden Bowl" was an exercise in dead unbelievable dialog and characters you couldn't care less about.
Today is the day to start demessing - but blogging is important, too.
P.S. Several hours later: couldn't make myself work. Instead, went for a walk by the river. The wind proved too cold for this adventure, so I abandoned the walk and went shopping to the Hannam market. Bought only a couple of items (this in keepin with my 'gotta really start budgeting now' approach to life); however, one of them happens to be the indecently expensive Ben & Jerry's icecream. Never bought it before, not here not in Canada, so I thought it was time to taste it, which I am about to do.

Couple clothes

Couple clothes. Korea is a country where it's not unusual to see colour-coordinated couples wearing "couple clothes." This pair of weather hikers took the creative way wrapping themselves in warm and cool colours - reddish for the lady and bluish for the man. Spotted outside of Mangwolsa Subary Station

He's supposed to be guarding the entrance to a temple, but Hypnos tricked him into the realm of the unconscious.  

Jiwon said that here we look as happy as kids on a school trip. We have our milk money, too. I'm wearing last year's Irish Festival t-shirt bought in Daehangno, honouring St. Patrick's Day, of cours.  

Jiwon, resting after the conquest of a bunch of scary rocks on Dobongsan.  

The beauty of the pre-sunset light reflected my my post-hike sweaty face. At the entrance to a temple on Dobongsan.