Finally, after too long, I plucked up the courage to go to the hair salon.  Over the summer, when I was home, I had my hair colour ‘corrected’ and a cut which I was really happy with.  Not particularly pleased with the colour care I have found in Dubai salons, I was reluctant to return.  However, there comes a point in every wary Dubai woman’s maintenance schedule when the desperate need of a hair colour and/or cut is no longer capable of being camouflaged!

I ventured back to my usual haunt.  There they cut my hair, more often than not, too short (it seems one should at least halve the number of inches when instructing the stylist!), but it grows out well, so I can’t complain on that front.  As with haircuts in any part of the world, the true test of its quality is in the final blow dried product!  Most hair stylists in Dubai are Lebanese men.  English is not their strength, but their intuition women’s hair is!

When it came to drying my hair, this is the conversation which ensued:

Hair Stylist (‘HS’): – ‘How you want?’, he asked as he tugged at strands of hair.

Me:  ‘Big, wavy, with volume’, I answered.  Remembering a British stylist in Dubai got this request comletely wrong, I began gesticulating madly, to ensure he got the message I did not want my hair straightened.

HS: ‘Medium.  Not too tight.  Out?’ he asked with a knowing look. (Translation: Medium sized brush, Curls not too tight.  Flicked out).

Me: ‘Exactly’, I confirmed with a nod.

He promptly got to work.

He pulled, he curled, he contorted my thick locks, wrapping them round styling brushes before pinning them to my head.  When he was finished blowdrying, he returned to the first wound up curl, and unravelled each one with care.

My head resembled that of a poodle.  I fought my face’s desire to convey my real thoughts!

HS: ‘Out now or later?’ he asked gruffly, perhaps sensing my horror.  (Translation: Shall I unravel the ringlets now or would you prefer to do it yourself later?)

Me: ‘Now please’, I managed politely.

His expert fingers teased my Irish dancer curls; they tossed and tussled, and gently tugged my hair to salon, sleek perfection.

My smile said it all; as did HS’!