The thing about hair is--it always grows back!

The new me! Today Devon, Anna, Caroline, our professor and her daughter Megan and I put the fate of our locks in the hands of Vidal Sassoon Advanced Academy students. We had been talking about making appointments at the academy for a few days. Because students do the cutting, the price is super cheap. The only catch is that the advanced academy reqiures that you get a "drastic" style change--no trims here. Also, it's very time consuming. Each step done by a student is monitored by a teacher, and there could be many students working under one teacher at a time. Anyway, I called the salon at 9:30 this morning before class and was finally able to speak to a receptionist, who cheerfully made an appt. for six for tomorrow at 1:30. Well, it turned out that our professor couldn't make it at that time, so I quickly called back and rescheduled for today at 1:30. Class ended at 12, and we were waiting for the bus to Grosvenor St. by 1pm.
The bus took forever and we had to make a connection on a highly congested tube, so we were about 10 minutes late when we finally arrived. The place was nice, and the receptionists were very friendly. Our group of six was led to a waiting area with tea and coffee and fruit and biscuits where we nervously paced until called downstairs to the cutting room. The cutting room was basically a small salon--white mirrored walls, cutting stations everywhere. It was packed. Everyone was incredibly nervous. The girls getting the finishing touches on their cuts had bright red streaks and teased ends and extreme layers. It was intimidating.
After a little while, we all got seated at cutting stations and were introduced to the teacher, a short Italian man named Luca with a bald head, thick black glasses and a fabulous accent. He was wearing all black--black shoes, black pants, black t-shirt, black button-up vest, and one white scarf around his neck with black skulls and cross bones. He was loud and outgoing and said things like, "Hell-OH, lovely!" He knew what he was doing with hair. He was absolutely meticulous.
The student cutting my hair was a woman named Synne Jensen from Denmark. She was very nice and constantly assured me that the cut was going to be "very nice." Luca watched every cut she made, corrected every tiny error, and showed her all of the tricks of the trade. Throughout the process, other students would come over to watch and occasionally fondle my head or take notes. After two hours, Synne had only finished the bottom layers of my hair. I was getting nervous. The pieces in the front looked oddly longer than the ones in the back, but I trusted that it would all come together in the end. Besides, it's only hair. This is what they make bobby pins and hair ties for.
The whole process took about 4 hours. Yes... it was quite a long time. But what an interesting experience! Everyone was really happy with their hair cuts. They took individual pictures of us at the end to put in their books. We ended up getting the haircuts for free as well. We tried to pay, but they turned us away! I really can't imagine a better deal.

So, besides the new haircut, I haven't done much else today but eat and ride the tube. Last night we went to the Globe Theater to see Shakespeare's play "A Comedy of Errors." It was really fantastic. The Globe is an open air theater, and it was a truly beautiful night in the Thames. The actors were hilarious and their physical comedy was excellent. Tomorrow we're seeing the play "Wicked." I can't wait.
It may seem as if all I do here is have fun and see plays and get free haircuts, and it's true. That's really all I do. But I also have to write a 12-15 page research paper by the end of October, and I need to present my topic by the end of next week, so I've begun doing research during the day. It's going to be hard adjusting to school mode, but I'm ready. Plus, my topic is interesting. I'm researching the transformation that the British Press underwent during WWI when the government began to censor newspapers and eventually took over complete control. I think my thesis is going to discuss whether or not this action taken by the government was a threat to Democracy. It certainly changed the public's most vital source of news forever. The problem is that I haven't found many sources just yet. Seems like censorship is still being practiced widely today...
Oh, and I forgot to mention one thing--our cuts were totally FREE!