Haircuts and Holidays In Manila

As we weather the perfect storm here in Manila, I’m trying my best to be where my feet are. We went to the mall several times this week to walk and completed all of our holiday shopping. Dave and I are working on learning some Vietnamese language and the kids are wrapping up school assignments before we take a break for the holidays.

The Salon Experience in Manila

During one of our trips to the mall I got a haircut and the experience was phenomenal! I’m pretty low maintenance when it comes to my hair. In Colorado I get it cut twice a year and I don’t pay the extra to have it washed or styled. Walking into the salon here in Manila I really didn’t know what to expect. Although a lot of people here speak some English, there’s often enough of a language barrier to make things difficult. I’ve learned in most situations it’s best not to ask too many questions and just go with it. I showed them a picture of what I wanted, but beyond that I was kind of at their mercy. For example, I was trying to ask the stylist if he had experience cutting blonde hair (for Alexis) and he thought I was telling him I wanted to dye my hair blonde. Yikes!

Regardless of any miscommunication, the entire visit was fantastic. The salon runs extremely smoothly and they have different employees doing specific jobs. There was someone who washed my hair (and massaged my scalp!), then took me to my chair. Next a style specialist came and cut my hair. After that a different person came and dried my hair. Not just a simple blow dry, a full on round brush blowout. Then the style specialist came back and did some more cutting with my hair dry. I’m not sure if there are salons that run like this in the states, but I’ve never been to them.

The biggest shock of this entire experience was the price. All of this for the grand total of 450 Philippine pesos, which converts to $7.67! We went back the next day for Alexis and the service was just as good! Alexis got A LOT of people staring at her as they walked by and several employees watched as she got her haircut. That blonde hair really is a novelty here.

Holiday Festivities in the Philippines

There are holiday festivities around every corner here. Like Dave mentioned, Christmas is a major event in the Philippines. 93% of the population identify as Christian, with 79% identifying as Catholic specifically. Braxton has learned a lot about the different traditions they celebrate here and we’ve seen some of them first hand. For example, they have what is called Simbang Gabi happening right now.

Simbang Gabi (Filipino for “night worship”) is a devotional, nine-day series of Masses attended by Filipino Catholics in anticipation of Christmas. Masses start on December 15th and end on December 24th. They are currently going on in our condo complex right now. They hold mass in their community building.

There are many other festivities as well. Including elaborately decorated fast food restaurants and dance performances by local kids at the mall. It’s been really fun to see!

Missing Home During the Holidays

The kids have both expressed a fair amount of homesickness the last week. I think this is the culmination of several things. As the holidays are approaching they are sad to miss our usual traditions and family gatherings. Even though we are surrounded by local Christmas decorations/festivities, it doesn’t feel like Christmas to us. We need cold weather, hot chocolate and coffee from our snowman mugs, cozy blankets, and the lights of our Christmas tree. Did I ever mention that our Airbnb has no blankets? Not even for the beds. We are all sleeping with an empty duvet cover (no fluffy insert). Good thing it’s hot here!

Alexis and I were day dreaming today about sitting in our house, wrapped in a blanket, watching it snow. There’s no snow here and a cozy blanket won’t fit in our backpack, but at least our hair looks good!