This week, LTL Mandarin School, have provided us with an expert guide on getting your haircut in Chinese. This blog has been written by Marie from LTL.
Do you know all the useful expressions for getting a haircut in Chinese?
During your stay in China, you might need to go into a hair salon and interact with the hairdresser to get a haircut or to change your hairstyle. Explaining to your hairdresser exactly how you want your hair to look can be challenging even when you speak your native language, so… how to get a haircut in Chinese? Easy! Read our vocabulary and you won’t go home disappointed!
First of all let’s learn how to describe hair’s length, color, and texture!
HAIR LENGTH IN CHINESE
Let’s keep it simple and describe the main categories of hair length:
One can have short hair 短髮/短发 (duǎn fǎ), medium-length hair 中長髮/中长发(zhōng cháng fā), shoulder-length hair 及肩髮/及肩发 (jí jiān fà), long hair 長髮/长发(cháng fā).
So when your hair stylist 髮型師/发型师(fǎ xíng shī) or hairdresser 理髮師/理发师(lǐ fǎ shī) will ask you:
How would you like your hair cut today? 你頭髮今天想要怎麼剪？/你头发今天想要怎么剪？(nǐ tóufǎ jīntiān xiǎng yào zěnme jiǎn?)
Then you can say you want it shorter 我想要剪短一點/我想要剪短一点 (Wǒ xiǎng yào jiǎn duǎn yīdiǎn), trimmed 修 (xiū) and maybe also layered 層次/层次(céngcì). Then, if you also want to get hair bangs you can say 我想要瀏海/我想要刘海 (wǒ xiǎng yào liúhǎi).
HAIR COLOR IN CHINESE
Would you like to get your hair colored? That’s the way you say it in Chinese!
I want to dye my hair 我想染髮/我想染发… (Wǒ xiǎng rǎnfǎ)…
platinum blond 亮金色 (liàng jīnsè), ash brown 淺棕色/浅棕色 (qiǎn zōngsè), auburn 紅褐色/红褐色 (hóng hésè), chestnut 栗子色(lìzǐ sè), copper red 紅銅色/红铜色 (hóng tóng sè), burgundy 酒紅色/酒红色 (jiǔ hóngsè), natural black 自然黑(zìrán hēi) or jet black 亮黑色 (liàng hēisè).
What if you would like to get highlights in your hair? Easy! 我想挑染! (Wǒ xiǎng tiāo rǎn) 挑 (tiāo) “to pick”+ 染 (rǎn) “to dye.”
HAIR TEXTURE IN CHINESE
One can have straight hair 直髮/直发 (zhí fà), wavy hair 大波浪 (dà bōlàng), curly hair 捲髮/卷发 (juǎnfǎ), curly hair 卷曲(juǎnqū) or kinky hair 黑人卷 (hēirén juǎn).
So you might be asked if you would like to have your hair straightened 你想把頭髮燙直嗎?/你想把头发烫直吗? (nǐ xiǎng bǎtóufǎ tàng zhí ma) or if you want to get a perm 你想燙頭髮嗎?/你想烫头发吗? (nǐ xiǎng tàng tóu fǎ ma) But you might just want to get a shampoo 我只要洗頭髮/我只要洗头发(wǒ zhǐyào xǐ tóu fǎ) or to have a wash, cut and dry 我想要洗剪吹(wǒ xiǎng yào xǐ jiǎn chuī).
And finally, how to ask how much is it for your haircut in Chinese? It’s easy, list all the treatment you got, for example, “wash and set” and ask how much is that all together? 洗+剪吹… 一共是說少錢？/一共是多少钱？(Yīgòng shì duōshǎo qián?).
I hope you found my article about how to get a haircut in Chinese useful and interesting and have fun practicing Mandarin every time you can!
