I recently went to the barber shop all by myself. I felt like it would be good practice for language. The place is called a Potong Rambut. I have been there before, but always with my Indonesian friends. It's a good haircut for a good price: 7,000 Rupiah (about 75 cents). He also does the whole haircut in about 6 minutes. Never before have I seen scissors go so fast or been so scared while getting a haircut. Also, sitting under the big sheet thing he puts on you makes an already 90 degree day feel like 120. It's really hot.
So here's the language blunder: I described to him how I wanted my hair cut. I tried explaining that I wanted it to taper from short on the sides to long on the top. He understood (or so I thought) and started cutting away... As I was sitting there, I told him that many of my friends told me that I should get a mohawk. Remember that this is all in Indonesian and hypothetical situations are hard to express. Either way, either I said it wrong or he misunderstood me, but I ended up with a mohawk/fauxhawk type of haircut. It could be really wild if I wanted it to look that way, but I try to keep it down a bit. A fauxhawk is a very popular haircut here, so my friends think it is really cool and continually tell me that I need to make it spiky and stick it way up.
So the moral of the story is: before walking into a barber shop and trying to describe your desired haircut, it helps to know the language well...
