Getting Thai-style hairdo and other beauty services

I have an exciting day on Saturday. I'm going to judge a dog show in Thailand (No they do not eat dogs). I want to look and feel my best. First impressions matter here as well as elsewhere. Before moving here from Seattle, I went through all my beauty rituals -- hair cut and color with David my stylist, pedicure, acrylic nails, brows waxed or as they say in Thailand "same same".

Not now I've been here a while. The hair is getting long, it's curling in the heat. I'm beginning to look like a cave woman with bushy eyebrows. My feet need care -- particularly because in the heat, I'm not wearing hosiery. And, oh yes, the dreaded gray hair is lurking. I get my color codes from my stylist in Seattle. It reads like a secret code but I feel more secure. His email wishes me luck...What to do? Where to go.

Since I walk to and from the Siam Center every day for one reason or another. I began my search at the upscale shop. I watch, I lurk. I remember the prices of the acyclic nails (more than the U.S.) I leave. I take the walk over to the other side of the street. here are lots of tiny fashionable boutiques and fun shops. Very trendy. Better prices. But perhaps a bit too trendy. I am not wearing the skin tight jeans of a 20 year old or a trendy mini skirt with mile long legs. I don't have a tiny body and head to go with it of a Thai beauty in her 20s. I don't want the spikes of my hair to stand straight up (Okay I considered it for a moment) Nah.

Off to the MBK. MBK is a shopping center with hundreds of small enterprises including beauty shops. People shop there for basics, faux designer bags, tourist trinkets, food. It's big; it's fun; and usually cheaper. But it's lots of people with stylists standing in the shopping lanes "Take a look." "You come now." So maybe a little to crowded, too much "in and out" for me. What I do notice is there are jut as many Asian men getting their hair colored as women. Color, highlights, are for for everyone.
I final settle on the Siam Discovery Center, next to the Siam Center. There are two shops. Toni and Guy which I later learned is a chain and has special "European styling training." The only problem, the receptionist had blonde, really blond hair on top and dark hair below. And I remember the time I sent my husband Michael to get "highlights" in his hair and through miscommunication he came back with a bowl head of bleached blond on top and brown hair below. I don't speak Thai so this may be issue. My search continues...

Tucked in a corner on the same floor, I find the Hair Decor. Not too busy but a good mix of people. I liked most of the stylists hair and except for aging queen who was negotiating to have orange hair and semi-Mohawk, I liked the look and feel. You name it is there. Cutting, styling and coloring one's hair like many things in Thailand is somewhat negotiable. The signs usually read 1500 baht and up for color, 1000 baht and up for highlights. 500 baht for a cut, 1500 baht and up for permanent, etc. After failing to get a total price at the nail salon. I decided to get an agreement on the full price BEFORE we started.

We started at 1500 baht for color, 1500 baht for highlights plus a hair cut at 400 baht. I'm silent. Thai price I say. I'm silent. "Okay, Okay," he says, special price for you. A free haircut." I add up the price. It's about $92, more than I pay at home. "Too much. More than American prices." "We discuss that I have short hair so less to color and less to highlight. No movement on price. "The higher the price to the shop," I say,"the smaller tip to you." The price immediately drops. "We settle on 2500 baht total. We talk about color and highlights and that I want a "Thai updated look but not too Thai. After all, I am not 20 or 30 or 40.... Okay, we agree "This color base. Not too much, not too little on highlights. Just enough, "Markoki my stylist agrees.

One advantage in Thailand is that there is usually no waiting and no appointments needed. The downside is that Thai service provides are slow and meticulous. Maroki applies the highlights. An assistant finishes up with the base color over the rest of the hair. This process takes a good hour or so. Shampooing is not just once, not twice but four times. But you get a great scalp massage as well.

The haircut took about an hour. He was amazing. Being the daughter of a beautifican and showing dogs, scissoring techniques are curiously interesting to me. He held the scissor and cut in a very different way than I have seen used in the U.S. We talked about the differences in hair textures and how Thai hair feels different than Japanese or Korean or Indian hair and how American's hair was much easier to cut. And we are less demanding.

An way the color was nice and just some nice highlights. It is a little more Burgundy than I've had but I asked for that. He was more than willing to match my stylist's original color specifications. If you are picky and want a certain hair dye it better be Wella or L'oreal because that's the only brands I could find in the shops I visited. I've been wearing an asymmetric style and he left it that way but shorter than usual. I love what my stylist in the states does but this was neat also. And he even took time to me how to use hair wax exactly right to "punch it up" a little when I want.

I also got a pedicure for 300 baht or about $8 dollars. They don't rub your fee like they do at higher priced places but not the callouses are gone, the feet look fine.

Would I go here again? Absolutely. Maroki was great. The next day several of my students (including some males) commented on my new Thai do. One student said I looked 3 years younger (I was hoping for at least 4.37865 years) but 3 years will. then again next week they have test and buttering up, well it never hurts.

I have cool hair, nails and feet are god. I think Botox will be order soon...that too is suppose to be a bargain in Thailand. Let's hope I can find the real thing rather than the Chinese "faux" brand.