Point of no return

i truly thought my inner cheapskate would never give in. or that it would at least hold out for much longer.

i honestly believed i would have my salon services -- haircut, color, mani-pedi, waxing -- done in manila forever. i have seen local salon prices. i have converted them to pesos in my head and wept. i have heard the stories of women who saved up their salon must-dos for weeks (possibly months). until their next trip home. i really thought it could be done!

maybe it was the euphoria of finally getting my dependent's pass, or boredom with my perpetual ponytail, or a wildly hopeful belief in creating hireability via haircut. whatever it was, i crossed the dotted line, my own personal point of no return, and finally got my hair cut in a singaporean salon.

and i must say...


i quite love it.

the experience was great -- the stylist was unfazed by my wavy hair. he just knew what to do, and i heard nary a whimper about getting my hair relaxed or whatever (although he did sell me a root retouch). it all felt very expert.

it's day three of the new 'do, and even with the blowdry gone and the natural curl kicking in, it's holding up quite, quite well. it just looks a little more george fayne-ish now. if you've ever read the old hardbound nancy drew books and seen the illustrations of nancy's tomboy-ish friend george, you'll know what i mean.

marlon also had his own personal first that afternoon: highlights!

i've seen that hat somewhere before. tee hee.

very sci-fi.

the process was quite interesting. the colorist started out with highlights (what i personally refer to as the jologs phase of the color job) then did a flat color to tone them down.

voila! highlighted hubby!

as you can see, marlon is quite happy with his new look -- about as happy as i was with mine.

we immediately hied off to adrian's farewell dinner to test our new hairdos' performance in a social setting. shrenik was gracious enough to document our experiment with his camera phone.

we tried to go out and party to celebrate our new looks, but the vodka at adrian's just made us too sleepy. yes, i do believe we're getting on in years. so we just sat by the river at clarke quay with cones of hokkaido soft ice cream (one of my new singapore favorites!) before heading home.