Beijing’s a scary place. Expats have to deal with the language barrier, the throngs of people, and the obnoxious pop music blasting away at full volume – and that’s just the hair salons.
In all seriousness, whether you’re here in Beijing for a good time or a long time, there comes a day when you wake up and realize that you’re overdue for a haircut. Where to go? Who to trust?
Some people (our staff included) are too scared to even enter the local hair salons for fear of what ills may come. This is no way for anyone to live, so we’ve spoken to the city’s top stylists for advice. We’ve also put together a cheat sheet of hair care vocabulary so that you can make yourself understood in a Chinese salon. Facial hair has not been neglected – we’ve put our necks on the line by asking various barbers for an old-fashioned wet shave. Basically, we’re putting you on a fast track to follicle finery. It’s all here in The Hair Issue. We want you to look your sharpest.
What’s going on in the rest of the issue? In the FOOD & DRINK section, you’ll find a DIY guide to cooking your own chuanr in the Dining Feature. We also go for a drink with Shane O’Neill, Beijing’s only classic-barber-slash-DJ, hear about Brendan O’Kane’s apocalyptic final meal and put ice teas to the taste test. We also spotlight ice cream sandwiches, sober sips and all of the best new bars and restaurants.
Our GO section is packed with haircare gadgets and apps, and reviews of new shops and venues around town. We give you an overview of the uptown gypsy trend, a preview of white-collar boxing, a feature on real-life Escape-the-Room games and the biggest giveaways we’ve ever managed to squash into a single issue. The size of these prizes will make your hair stand on end.
Meanwhile, we have a few more people we’d like you to MEET. Cocktail wizard Paul Mathew mixes tunes instead of drinks, Elements’ Cici Fang divulges the skeletons in her wardrobe, curly-haired Hutong head Josh Kernan shows us his bookshelf and CRI’s Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer tries to prove how clever he is. We’ve also taken a lesson in Britishness, gotten some dating advice, chatted with two top-class Brit Lit authors and tried to puzzle out the Chinese Olympic stars.
Plus, there’s Ecology telling us about Chinese business going green, the Peking Man’s worst salon experience, and enough Events and Directory to guarantee that your weekends are never as flat as a cabbie’s buzz cut.
Get a copy around town or read it right here, right now.
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