Pamper yourself

Great things happen when you choose to pamper yourself.

While I was in Madrid I wanted to get my hair done as a little treat. I don’t like overpaying for hair services- therefore the best thing to do is to move as far away as possible from the tourist district. There is this one great area of Madrid that is absolutely beautiful. It is a very cultural / bohemian neighbourhood (

called La Lavapies. I found many amazing things around this one metro stop such as this restaurant called Chez Farida

, I got my blackberry unlocked for $10, I got delicious oranges, I found a great store selling beautiful things for super cheap, and most importantly, I found the hairdresser of my dreams.

This is why I love traveling: I was walking along and then looked over and saw a men’s/women’s hairdresser. So I went inside and attempted to enquire in English how much it would cost for a wash and blow dry. She spoke not one word of English- so with my understanding with Spanish I came to the understanding that the total would come to 8 euros- yes only 8 euros. I was in shock- I didn’t quite know if I understood her properly because I have long, curly, unruly hair and for a wash and blow dry to come to that- which is normally minimum of $25 dollars- I was going to get the service- and clarify at the end. She is from Morocco. She washed my hair, got out the roundbrush, the elbow grease, and started working at my hair.

Oh my goodness people… you don’t understand. She put in so much hard work, 2- 2.5 hours to be precise. She took tiny strands of hair at a time to blowdry and blowdry like I have never seen anyone blowdry before. Now when I was in Paris, a friend Régine told me about another hair dresser in her neighbourhood (just outside of Paris) who did a great job on her hair for cheap too- also Moroccan- for $16 euros. Now these Moroccans just know and understand curly hair. They don’t blowdry it until it’s a puff of fuzz and then take out the flat iron and smooth it out to a straight that is so unnaturally straight. They take the time, put in the elbow grease, and work each strand of hair until the curl is out and the hair stands naturally straight with a loose curl at the bottom (by choice) – I also had my hair blowdried super straight – but the natural curl is fabulous.

Okay, sorry, went off track there, so back to my Moroccan hair dresser in Madrid. The ability to communicate with people abroad is so fascinating when you don’t speak the same language- it is 100% possible when you really don’t think it is. Let me explain… her first language is Arabic and second language is Spanish. My first language is English and my second language is French. I don’t speak Spanish, but understand it, and she doesn’t speak French, but understands it. So we spent hours speaking our second languages to each other while understanding our third. We talked about each other’s lives, families, and life in general. She is such a special person, she works hard and is trying to support her two children who are living in Morocco with her parents while making a fraction of the monthly salary that you and I make. I told her she has to come to Canada and myself and all of my curly haired friends and family can support her by having her as our personal hair dresser!!! I also said I’d help look for a Canadian man for her- to send him over there and he can sweep her off her feet! We spent hours laughing.

After the first 3 days in Madrid when I first met her, I went to Morocco for a few days. I decided to go back to Madrid for another 5 days for the sun, the people, the relaxation, and of course my hair dresser. I went back to her 3 more times. I felt like I was ripping her off by paying so little for 2 hours of hard work- so I always gave her a nice tip! My last visit I got my hair layered too- she also did a great job!!! And only paid a minimal fee of 15 euros!!!!! For a wash, cut, and blowdry!!! Insane!!!

The morals of the story are:

- Communicate in ways you can, an understanding will come out of it.

- Get your hair done in Madrid, it is cheap

- Spoil and pamper yourself

- Keep an open heart.

We exchanged email addresses- I have yet to email her- but I plan on it. If you or a friend ever makes your way to Madrid, contact me, and go to her salon, she’s awesome.