Ms. Sunny Kim, owner-chief executive of the Bestway Technical College.
Ming Zhang works his magic at the Bestway Technical CollegeTruth: Men go out and buy things. Women go 'Shopping.' Truth: Men get Haircuts. Women get their hair 'Styled.' Truth: curtains hanging on a window frame are curtains hanging on a window frame. To a woman, it's a 'Window Treatment.' When I need a haircut that's exactly what I want. I began this quest into how our daily parlance changes some years ago when I walked into a local barbershop and asked for a haircut. I especially recognized on that fateful day that what something means to a man might not mean the same thing to a woman. The mystery! I didn't have time to go to my regular barber (note the term - this is an important feature in understanding my story) so I opted to go to a local shop which had just recently opened for business. The first thing that threw me off were the line of black plastic-covered, chrome 'styling' chairs and the fact that I didn't see any barbers in the place - just a few young women, mostly Asian, mostly sitting there gossiping and looking dead-panned.
I was ushered into a chair and asked what I wanted. I said I wanted a haircut, make it short, and that I didn't have a lot of time on my hands and had to be somewhere. Snip by tiny snip, here and there, and all about my head with little scissors and a big 'styling' comb caused my frustration to build, but the girl was young and I figured she didn't have much experience. I kept telling her "More, more," and the more time she took. I said, "Look. I want a haircut. Cut my hair. Just cut the damned stuff!" Just then, an older Korean man came out of a back room and having overheard my pleas, told the young miss to step aside. "I know what this man wants," he said, "Here . .Let me take over." He attacked my head with the electric clippers and finished the job in about twenty minutes. It was one of the finest haircuts I had ever received and I thanked him (and tipped him big-time) for his aggressiveness. It ended up he had been a barber in Seoul and had cut a lot of American G.I. heads in his younger days.
Suffice it to say, I never went back to that shop - especially after learning that "Haircuts" were no longer 7 to ten dollars, but were fast approaching 12, 15, even 25 dollars in the new "styling shops." And this was some years ago that I'm talking about. Not today's market in 2010. When I see a friend who obviously has just gotten a haircut, I never fail to ask him, "Hey. Where did you get the haircut and how much did you pay for it?" His answer will tell me volumes about him - his level of vanity or pretentiousness - his level of being suckered into paying for something totally worthless - whether his wife has talked him into going to the same place she goes "to get her hair done" - or whether he continues to go to the same male barber who's probably cut his hair (at a cheap price) for more than a score of years. Take John Edwards for instance. His $400 and $500 haircuts (or in his case, probably 'stylings') were bound to lead him down a path of complete slime-covered shame. Any man who would pay that kind of money for a haircut really needs close scrutiny, and really couldn't be a true male friend to other males. You have to mistrust the judgement of a guy like that, and weren't we right in the end? Good riddance to Johnny. For all you real men out there who want to know the truth, the going rate for a decent haircut nowadays, and probably the Barbers' Union standard, is 11-dollars! Throw in a nice tip for the barber who treats you right and you're probably talking no more than $14 or $15.
Enter the return of the 6-dollar haircut. While Fairfax County (Virginia) slept, the area of Annandale turned into South Korea in what seemed overnight. I mention this as a good thing, because when the Koreans move in there is an explosion of economic development and industriousness, not to mention good shops and restaurants and a sense of order that makes the Prussians pale in comparison. I had to go over to Annandale during the big snow-storms this winter and noticed that three or four more "Beauty Schools" had opened up. Mostly Korean owned and operated, you can walk in and 'trainees' are more than happy to work on your head for a pittance. In all fairness to them, you-get-what-you-pay-for. For this individual, this is the beginning of the same dynamic that worked several years ago here in our area with the advent of the "Chinese Buses" to New York City. Now, the regular bus companies are having to deal with the competition, and they don't like it - they're afraid to admit that our nation's economy was built on competition, new ideas, and working harder than the next guy to build cash-flow. Rest is rust. I don't think Koreans ever sleep - and if you don't believe me, spend some time in Seoul.
Much to my relief (to wallet and mental order) I discovered a Korean-run Beauty School had opened up last year in our town of Vienna. I needed a haircut badly at the end of the third blizzard and decided it was time to try it out. I knew the drill. Go in and for six-dollars let some novice experiment on your head. You are going to get what you pay for. That's the deal. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised at the attention I was given and the haircut I walked away with. I gladly tipped the student who worked on me. They took their time and allowed one or two students to do some clipping so they got the experience. Jae actually did most of the cutting, gently assisted by Ming Zhang, who seemed to have more experience. Hot-Damn! For six-bucks this is such a deal and in the end they gave me exactly what I had come in for. I wanted to meet the owner-manager and the young men and women were happy to introduce her - she's Ms. Sunny Kim, originally from Incheon, Republic of South Korea. She explained the concept of the school and what was expected. I also met some of the students, who are recruited mainly from the Asian and Latino communities. The Bestway Technical College is located at 512 West Maple Avenue in Vienna, Virginia and is open for business six days a week. Put a little adventure in your life - and get a $6 Haircut.
Bestway Technical College, 512 Maple Avenue West, Vienna, Virginia 22180
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