Trying to get a haircut

Trying to get a haircut in Weimar is like trying to order tap water at a restaurant. Impossible.

See here's the thing. Most hair salons (and there are many here in town) don't take reservations. I guess they're all like SuperCuts. But the problem is, they each have only one or two hairdressers working there. Now, I have found a place that will take a reservation and they do a reasonably nice job with my hair. But, I'm not about to make an appointment weeks out for Fiona, because their weekend appointments are very hard to find. So I always just go to one of these ordinary places and wait. And wait. And wait to get a child's haircut.

This weekend, I took Fiona on Saturday morning (insane. why even try?) to THREE separate places. Each place told me, "Sorry, we have no time for you today," and sent me out the door. What kind of a business model is that? I was willing to wait a reasonable amount of time, then pay them money, and cutting Fiona's hair is not a challenging task (no foils, not a perm, not even layers)! But no. We kept being turned away. After place number 3, we gave up.

Today after school, I decided we'd attempt again. Monday afternoon shouldn't be too busy, especially since everyone in Weimar got their hair cut on Saturday, right? Place number one gave us the same spiel. Place number two tried to give us the same story but then said that if we waited 30 minutes, they could squeeze us in. I was anxious to get Fiona's hair cut before we go home and our days are getting really busy, so I agreed.

Now, as we were waiting (and making a scene of ourselves, as usual, see previous posts) I noticed the reason they were so unequipped to handle customers. There were three ladies working in this salon. One was faffing about restocking the boxes of hair color and slooowwwly peeling taped labels off and sticking them back on. Another was hanging out in the back room, drinking a coffee. And the third woman was pretending to cut someone's hair but in actuality just waving her scissors around and chatting up a storm.

Seriously? This is the way to run a business? I know it's very American of me, but come on, ladies. I know you don't work for tips, but pick up the pace a little. It's not too complicated- snip quickly, turn those chairs around, and stop turning customers away. You'll make money. It makes me think of a very funny T-shirt I saw which read, "I'm no rocket surgeon."

Hairdressers in Weimar are definitely not rocket surgeons.