The first few months we lived in Brisbane there was an ongoing joke about how I managed to align my visits back to New Zealand with when my hair was due for a cut and colour. In fact we had lived in Brisbane for ten months before I gave in and started visiting a local stylist (who also happened to be a New Zealander 🙂 )

It becomes glaringly obvious after the first 10 hour plus flight between Auckland and KL that you are not going to be able to make a quick jump across the ditch every few weeks. And while I managed to get a hair cut just before I left, I had also learnt from last time that getting a cut sooner rather than later gives a new stylist some chance of working out what the previous cut was if you want something similar.

Yesterday marked 6 weeks since my NZ cut and after a bit of research I had decided to try out Toni & Guy in Mont Kiara. In case you are not aware cutting (and colouring) European hair is different to cutting Asian hair, and it seemed a reasonable bet that a high end UK import franchise was more likely to have a stylist with European experience.

I was actually in a bit of a blue funk after saying goodbye to Jon on Wednesday and spending part of Thursday monitoring his flight transitions and pick up in NZ. While the idea of having a total blob out day at home had its attraction, ever since I got my license if I think I am not driving somewhere because I am nervous about it I have tended to pull myself up and deliberately choose to overcome the feeling. My driving nerves have been aggravated  by the fact that we have a replacement car at the moment. Our original lease car is being repaired after I managed to put a racing stripe down the side going down the the very narrow temporary ramp in the parking basement. For those of you familiar with the Jazz – yes like that. So  I wasn’t feeling overly confident about going anywhere.

After a bit of investigating and chatting with the guards I had discovered how to get to the standard ramps (you cant use the entrance at that point because they are redoing the driveway but you can detour over to that side of the building once you are in) so the apartment car park wasn’t such a big deal. But I was still a bit jittery about trying my hand at the mall car park. So I set off to Publika which is actually a smaller mall than most by KL terms, but very close to us. I had already been told to get there early if I wanted any hope of a car park so got there just after 10 (opening is 10am – 10pm) Used the TouchnGo card to get in the car park (another first) and found a park pretty easily at that time of morning.

Found the salon fairly easily and they could make an appointment with a senior stylist for 2pm. Having discussed my existing cut with the stylist I was handed over for to have my hair washed. I had been forewarned that hair washing practice in KL can be a little different (apparently they often shampoo you in the chair before moving you to a sink to rinse off) but being a European style salon it was a rather luxurious reclining couch experience.

Then it was the cut – after pretty much sixteen years of having someone who knows my hair, its movement and foibles very well, it seemed to take a lot longer than usual. And then I realised it was because she was getting  a sense of my hair movement as she cut. I was slightly disconcerted that having cut it they rinsed it again before blowdrying it. However it was a great cut and I felt confident enough to book a colour for Wednesday. My alternate plan had been not to colour it again until I was back in New Zealand in February. My only concern now is that being the northern hemisphere it is moving into winter when I would normally start darkening my colour but the temperatures will still be higher than the New Zealand summer when I would lighten it…