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One of the first things I am missing about Thailand is my low
cost, full attention haircut. "Sorn" (sounds like "Sawn")
starts out by giving me a shampoo, delightfully
bundled with a head and neck massage, deeply relaxing some of
those tense muscles I have. Then she cuts. And she is meticulous
about it. She will cut until every single hair is perfect, even
trimming the hairs inside my ear, and those two or three hairs
on my eyebrow that might be too long. When she is finished, she
will shampoo my hair again, and then comb and blow dry it until
I look like a movie star. Once I return home and comb my hair
again, blow dryer or not, no matter how hard I try, I will never
look as professional as I did when I stepped out of her shop.
She has been cutting my hair for over a decade now, and every
time she has moved to new shop, I have followed her. Why
wouldn't I? She does such an miraculous job--- and all for 150
baht ($4.27 U.S at the current exchange rate.)
Tipping has never been a part of traditional Thai culture. If
someone did a good job, they were only doing what they were
"expected to do", and to suggest that they needed a tip to be
motivated to perform well was improper, perhaps even an insult
to their character. When I left Thailand a few weeks ago, I offered a tip to the
office girl who helped me sell my belongings, but she refused, saying that she just wanted to have a
good heart. But like everything else in Thailand, tipping is in
a wild state of change, with everybody living in a different
time frame of the current upheaval. With each visit, Sorn
devotes an hour of her life to trimming my hair, so I always tip
her 40 baht, which is generous by Thai standards, but she thoroughly deserves it.
She works in a quiet little shop on Klong Lam Chiak just a few
doors east of the Seven Eleven (6/6 Shops Beautify Rada.) She's
struggles to get enough business, so as a Grand Finale tip, with
my departure from Bangkok, I am encouraging any of you who live
in that area to see her for your next hair cut. She has charged
me the same 150 baht for years, and I notice that most of the
other girls in that area are now charging a minimum of 250 baht, so
she might quote you something closer to that new norm, but
whatever she
asks for, she is well worth it.
(Above Photo: Miss Sorn, picks grapes on her family's farm.) |
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