Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Getting a haircut at the "German" salon

Store/Service Providers Reviewed:

Kaiserslautern Military Community Center Salon
(in the Ramstein air base's mall)

Sandy's Hair Styling Salon
67663 Kaiserslautern
Leipziger Str. 150
Telephone: 0631- 90 606
http://sandys-hairstyling-salon.de/

I have a confession: I've only had my hair cut twice in the five months I've been here. Since I have medium-length shorter hair (if that makes any sense) with layers, that's not the best because my hair gets funky looking in a grown out state. Well, I think it looks funky, but that's probably just because I know what it's supposed to look like.

The first time I got my hair cut, I was being really lazy and just made an appointment at the Kaiserslautern Military Community Center, which is the mall on the Ramstein Air Base. I was super lazy and just wanted to go where they're accustomed to dealing with Americans (as if places around town weren't already used to us - there are so many of here that it's ridiculous). Again, I was feeling lazy, but also a bit overwhelmed, since I hadn't completed all of the administrative bits of my PCS yet.

The salon at the KMCC isn't highly recommended, and I can concur with it. Well, it was okay and my hairstylist was pleasant, but she didn't cut too much of my hair and it didn't look super great. I can also appreciate, however, that she might have been cautious with cutting it because it's easier to fix something too long than something too short. The haircut was 16 Euros.

I needed another haircut and wanted to try somewhere different, so I made an appointment at Sandy's Hair Styling Salon in Hohenecken, which is quite close to Vogelweh, Pulaski, and Kapaun joint bases. I don't know if I can fairly call it a German salon, because the proprietor is English and most of the clientele is American, but the stylist I visited was most decidedly German and from the area (and I even heard her using the local dialect! I heard what sounds like "doe" and of course I can't remember what it means, but my German instructor mentioned this as a regional thing).

This place has been highly recommended in the American expat circles. One of my classmates goes there and her hair always looks cute, which is a good sign. She gave me a referral card which gave me 10% off the haircut and gave her 5% off her next service.

The stylist was very sweet. She (of course) said that she didn't speak English very well, but we had a very nice conversation so she just wasn't giving herself enough credit. When I told her I was studying German, she was thrilled and started speaking to me in German a bit, which I understood.

She asked when my last hair cut was and I told her it was about 6 weeks ago but the previous stylist hadn't taken much off. I liked this stylist's cut very much. She did a thorough job and cut a lot more hair off, which is necessary to make the natural wave in my hair come out and work for this style. She was also far more careful about making sure that the hair cut was even and balanced. I was very happy with the cut, which was 25 Euros (well, less after the 10% discount). I will visit Sandy's again.

6 comments:

  1. I went through our first year here without getting my hair cut and it was looking shabby. I, too, went to the one in the KMCC. It wasn't terrible (although I was shocked they wouldn't put a tip on a card...) as far as the cut went, but the lady kept talking about how terrible my hair was while she cut it. No kidding...that's why I've finally come in for a cut lol. It's going to need to get cut again soon so I may have to check this other place out. 25 euros is more expensive than KMCC but it's not much different than the $40 I paid for my last Stateside cut (which was way more than I wanted to or was used to spending but it was a great cut).

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  2. Geez, that wasn't a nice thing of the hair dresser to say! I really do like Sandy's Salon, and I figure it's worth it to pay more and be really happy with the cut instead of paying less for a substandard cut where the lady hardly took anything off. My hair style isn't super complicated, but I'm a wash and wear type of gal so it requires some skill to get the cut right for my hair type and level of laziness in styling it ;)

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  3. Had a terrible experience with Sandy's, would not recommend!

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  4. I have been going there for a year and a half now and have had positive experiences each time.

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  5. Me and my mom's hair cut at Sandy s was so expensive!! Over 100 Euro for us.

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  6. Hmm, my haircut is only 25 euros. I guess it depends on what people have done. For me, it's worth it to have a decent haircut that's consistent. My hair is easy - I don't get it washed there since I already have it washed, and I don't ask for blow drying or anything like that.

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