Deborah's haircut and random thoughts

Today's file photos -- actually taken last Friday, are of my friend Deborah's haircut. It takes a pretty gutsy person to have their hair cut in a foreign language. I have a hard enough time communicating about my hair in English. In particular, you are a risk taker if you take me along as your translator--whose vocabulary is limited to "li fa" (haircut), "yi dian dian" (a little bit) and the all purpose "Bu yao!" (don't want!). However, as you can see form the before (above) and after (below) shots -- she made out just fine!...she reported that the really interesting experience was the shampoo...apparently you lie flat with your head back and lots of massage thrown in.

By the way -- to respond to the comment about the children at Helen's school wearing western style clothes...traditional Chinese clothes are generally only worn for holidays and festivals. On very little babies you might see a jacket or hat in a traditional style, and some older women tend to gravitate towards coats with Mandarin collars and "frog" closures, but in general, the clothes are a universal (maybe slightly dated modern style (and to our delight -- often containing Chinglish) Hardly any "Mao jackets" around here either..though in the country-side there were more. The children are generally bundled up a bit in the mornings, even though it is still getting up above 75 degrees every day. I am making Helen wear tights or knee socks when she wears skirts to school, to head off any concern that I am exposing her to the cold -- my experience is that this is quite alarming to the early childhood educators of China, not to mention the grandmas at the bus stop.

Of course, no post of children's clothing in China would be complete without a description of the unique phenomena of "split pants" for toddlers. First of all, despite the wide availability of diapers here, many little children do not wear them. Instead they wear pants with the crotch missing, so that when they need to go, they need only to squat or be helped to a squatting position, usually in the gutter or drain of the street or some out of the way place and do their business. While the caregiver must usually be alert to the possibility at all times to avoid accidents, I have seen children pee in stores, etc. I regret that I have no photo to aid my description, but haven't figured out how to get one with out looking like a weirdo. I was led to believe that split pants were becoming uncommon when I was in China adopting Helen and first became aware of them, but I would have to disagree, having now seen my share of little bottoms. We are living on a college campus, and I don't think that affording diapers is the issue in many cases. Many children are cared for by grandparents who I guess are simply more comfortable doing things the way they are used to, like grandparents the world over. Maybe split pants will come in handy for potty training Sophia?!?