Shampoo shopping

On a Seinfeldish note, we went shampoo shopping. Conceptually simple, but you cannot possibly begin to imagine just how much hair product is stocked in a large Chinese supermarket. No you cannot. Really. Come to think of it, why do Chinese need hair product at all? They all have full heads of gleaming black hair. There were several whole aisles groaning with what one would assume was shampoo and conditioner. But which was which? Complete dearth of western text and tantalising to see the familiar names like Estee Lauder etc but not knowing which to choose. An assistant came along and tried to help but the limit of her contribution was to exhort us to buy a large bottle which was on special.  J said . . well lets just get one and the worse that could happen is that we buy conditioner. Ummmm . . . unless its hair remover! This concern was pooh-poohed but I did notice that I was ushered into using it first!

Another interesting sidelight was J’s observation that it was a strange feeling to be admiring and smiling at a baby, whose mother would proudly turn it round so that you could see it, and you would suddenly find yourself confronted by its bits. Having lived in Africa, I have seen thousands of naked babies but there is something distinctly incongruous when they are substantially clothed but their nether regions are blatantly exposed. We then realised that in every case it was male micro-tackle. What does this mean? Is this a reflection of the tendency for the One Child Policy to favour male children? Or don’t girl babies get put in crotchless jumpsuits?

We haven’t made much of an effort but have picked up a few Chinese terms like “nie how” hello and “tsheshen” thank you.