¡SI, SE PUEDE!

The water pressure in our apartment is so low that it would take me an hour to wash and rinse my (previously) longish hair. I decided I'd either have to get it cut or go to a hair salon twice a week for a wash. What would you do?

So, off to Gutiérrez Nájera street (I wrote a paper on him at UNC), the street of hair salons. I entered the first one and told the woman I wanted a wash and cut. She looked concerned and then explained to me that she had no warm water in the place. Taken aback at the concept of a hair salon with no warm water, I looked around, and, indeed, there were 3 "stations," but no sinks.

Suddenly she brightened up and said, "¡siéntate, preciosa!" (I would be "preciosa" for the rest of the encounter.) I sat, she handed me a book of hairdos and disappeared out onto the street. In a minute she was back with an electric hotplate and a small saucepan filled with water. She put the hotplate on a pile of magazines in the corner, plugged it in and put the pan on top. Then she sat down next to me and we conversed for the next 10 minutes until the water was heated.

Then she took me behind a door, had me bend over a sink, and washed my hair--don't ask me how she mixed the hot and cold water--I couldn't see a thing. Then she gave me a pretty good cut. Oh yeah, and we also joined a gym.