Adventure #....47? I lost count...

I went to the salon this afternoon! My roomate Katie Jo and I decided we were going to get thermal reconditionings, also known as the Japanese straightening treatment. We both have kind of frizzy wavy hair (if air dried naturally) and she had had it done before and liked the results. So off we go. We checked out a couple of salons before settling on the one we got our treatments at (the name of which of course I do not remember). The only differences I noted between the Asian salon and American salons are:
1.) The intensity of which they scrub your head when you get shampooed. Whoa! This girl dug her fingers into my scalp as if her life depended on it. Apparently this is a "scalp massage". But it wasn't too bad...
2.) One of the salon girls offered to go get us tea drinks from the tea stand next door. It was so nice to have a yogurt green tea to drink while waiting for the chemicals to do their chemically magic.
3.) Also they offer you a free cup of tea when you get there, which I didn't try. I only like tea that doesn't really taste like tea. The yogurt green tea tastes only subtely like green tea. Otherwise it is like yogurty fruity-ish icy goodness.
Otherwise it was much like American salons, only this one had less "stuff" cluttering the salon - like not very many bottles or posters. They even gave us a free Matrix product with our treatments. I got some kind of de-frizzing serum which is interesting since I just spent 2 1/2 hours getting my hair chemically permanently de-frizzed.
AND the best part is compared to the upwards of $300 that this same treatment costs in the US, this cost just about $60 in total. Thankfully Katie Jo speaks good Chinese and explained what we wanted done and what we DIDN'T want done (apparently they always try to "thin" western women's hair here because they think it is too thick) (we told them "no thinning" and they didn't).
So far since it was just done, my hair is super duper Flat and shiny. My bangs keep falling in my eyes. I'm not supposed to wash it for 24-48 hours (imperative, they say, to keep it bone dry to allow it to finish "setting"). But I'm pleased. It will tremendously cut down the amount of time I spend blow drying and flattening my hair in an attempt to ward off frizz in the mornings.
All in all for someone with thick wavy hair that is prone to frizz, or if you have to spend loads of time blow drying and flat ironing to look somewhat ok, this is the treatment for you. But do it in Asia. :)
I wll post pictures sometime soon. But for now I am having terrible allergies to the Dust, I think, with the sneezy itchy congested wateriness so I don't feel like posting pictures.
Until next time, zai jian!