I made the mistake of going to the peluquería (the hair salon) today. A good friend and co-worker of mine said she knew just the place. We had to take a combi outside of Huancayo central just to find her. It usually costs 3 soles ($1) to get your hair cut my friend tells me, but this lady charges 5 soles for her work. She had to be good.
We waited a half hour for her to arrive. I took my seat and explained what I wanted in broken Spanish – keep it long in the front, trim the back, fix the bangs, which I had been painstakingly cutting by myself the last three weeks. She starts trimming the back and all seems good. I find it weird that she only sprays my hair with water because I’m used to the soak pre-cut, but I brush it off. What should I be expecting for 5 soles anyway? Then, in one fell swoop, she performs an act so wholly disgusting, rendering me speechless – she cuts almost 3 inches off the front of my hair. My hair was already so short, I was trying to grow it out, and now… I have a mushroom cut and I look like a boy.
For some reason, my friend says nothing as the peluquera cuts more of my hair off, as she shaves the back of my neck with shaving cream and a blade old-school style, as she cuts another inch off my already short bangs. The left side of my hair is now noticeably longer than the right side of my hair, my bangs aren’t straight but I can’t trim it any shorter because they’re already abnormally high on my forehead, and I have stubble on the back of my neck. Above all this, I get charged 10 soles when she usually charges 5 and I don’t understand why. I cannot believe I let this happen to me. This…is…un…fixable.