I own this city.

Songju’s first customer of the day. It’s been months since I had my haircut and she reminded me that I need to come frequently for a trim even if I’m "growing out." Apparently, my ends are dry. I asked if it was because of the highlighting last time, but she said it was because of neglect. Hmm, I’m gonna have to disagree with ya there on your detective work Songju: I always go a long time between haircuts and my ends are never that bad. Last time, I remember leaving the salon with a burning scalp from the chemicals. Now couldn’t that be a factor?

I don’t mean to make it sound like I’m mad at her. We talked about split ends for about two seconds. The rest of the time we talked about David and Korea’s economic nose dive. She misses Dave. He doesn’t go there for haircuts anymore. Every time I go now it’s, "Where’s David?" So this time I leveled with her and said, "It’s just too expensive for the trim he needs every two weeks. He goes to a cheap place in the neighborhood now. But they do a bad job because each time he returns I have to even it out. It’s scary, you know? I mean, I’m afraid I’m going to carve a hole or something with the trimmer." She replied that he could see one of her assistants, who are very good and about 1/3 less expensive than she is. I said I’d pass it on.

Songju was chatty today. Maybe because I was the first one of the day, I don’t know. Anyway, she started talking about her family. And I was like, WOW!, you’re married? She’s so hip, dressing young and just looking young while runnin’ this salon full of really young people. I think if people looked at her they’d say she’s one of the more beautiful people they’ve seen. I’m not kidding. Her hair is kind of wild, her make-up subtle, and her clothes usually all black - ah hell, I can’t describe her well enough. She’s said she’s got one kid whose 18 and another who’s 13. Do you know how old that makes her? I never dreamed it. She looks no older than 35, really, and I just couldn’t believe it. Her husband works for Samsung and these days he fears for his job. She says it doesn’t matter what credentials a person has, if the team (project) they’re working on is considered non-profitable, everyone is canned. So her husband is super stressed, which makes her stressed.

I asked about the salon. She said business is fine, but the neighborhood is emptying. The salon is in the heart of Apkujong-dong, the Beverly Hills of Korea. They actually call one of the streets "Rodeo Drive". It’s a very exclusive place where all the designer labels have their stores and where many foreign retailers open up shop because the richest of the rich will have one of their residences in the area. I see a lot of Mercedes and BMW’s. Well, Songju was saying that each day she comes to work, another store has closed. She’s starting to worry. She said that many of the salons are failing because they had borrowed too much from the bank and since the economic crisis began interest rates have skyrocketed, stranding many. She’s doing OK because she had owned her own salon in England and sold it to finance the one here. She didn’t have to borrow as much from the bank. Also, she cuts hair for a good chunk of the foreign population who are more secure financially, so I’d say she’s got an edge.

One of the problems with Apkujong-dong is that its exclusiveness commands high rental fees, which people just cannot pay these days. She said Jean Paul Gaultier has gone out of business. I looked around afterward and saw that it was true. There was a little shop down the street selling Jean Paul for 70% off, but it wasn’t open that early in the morning. Gone too is Mrs. Field’s Cookies, which is a real disappointment. Calvin Klein - gone. J Crew - gone. Every building had a "for rent" sign on it, which is a city-wide phenomenon not limited to Apkujong-dong.

There was a new guy at the salon doing the shampoos and, man, this guy was good. He just kept scrubbing and massaging, pressing deep and waking up those nerves connected to some kind of pleasure center in the primitive part of my brain. It caused me to smile - a reflex. He massaged way low on my neck, cupping water and applying circular pressure that felt sensual. Ooo, that boy had a set of hands! I almost said, "That was a great shampoo!" But he interrupted my bliss by asking whether I wanted a perm and haircut or just a haircut. "Hunh?"

He was one of the people drying my hair too, but he needs to practice in that department. On the other side of my head was this guy in a black 3-piece suit with black shirt and a black tie with narrow white diagonal stripes. His hair was greased back slightly and he wore lightly tinted grey sunglasses. He looked just like Chow Yun Fat, the guy in all the John Woo movies. He stood over my head, a brush and dryer working my mane, another brush holstered in his jacket pocket. I loved having two men brushing and blowing my hair.

I left there with a new do heading for Tongdaemun market. I’d canceled my trip to Ewha today so I could go shopping instead. Making the trip to the university would’ve meant too many public transportation transfers; I just wasn’t up to it. I bought a floor pillow and a couple of new pillow cases for some we already have. I think I got ripped off, but I don’t try to bargain these days: Everybody thinks I’m rich because I’m a foreigner and if I try to get a better price, they think I’m trying to take advantage of them.

At one point I took the subway. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken the train. It was hot, moist and smelly. A child was crying in the crowded car, and six police officers kept looking at me. Maybe it was my awesome hairdo? I thought they might ask to see ID or something, which I never carry - not one of my smarter behaviors. I worried when one of them touched my backpack, but they eventually moved on into another car.

My hair adventure must’ve inspired Dave because he came home late saying he’d just gotten his hair cut - at the neighborhood joint. The shampoo guy there keeps flirting with him, he thinks. The guy says all kinds of weird things and is super attentive to the point where the other staff have asked the guy to leave Dave alone. Today he asked Dave which one of the men working in the salon was the most attractive. Heh. Would’ve loved to see Dave field that one. Anyway, Dave says the shampoo guy loves to massage his head really hard. Ironic isn’t? I mean I’m loving my head massage today and he’s freaking out about his. His worry is that too much scrubbing will scare away hairs in regions where they’re jumping ship daily.

Guess what? I had to even up Dave’s hair, post trim. It went like this:

Bzzzzzzz….
"Oops…"
"Oops?"