Hair Raisers: Martha Makuena, Owner of Paulma Hair Salon

Hair’s a big deal to most people. (That’s what our balding friends tell us.) The problem in Beijing is that hair care, with its myriad local providers and the language barrier, is just another reason to pull your hair out. We rounded up some of the city’s most respected friends of the follicle and asked them everything you’d ever wanted to know about getting a good haircut. Here's what Martha Makuena had to say about some hairy topics.

The largest length of hair I’ve ever cut off? There was a lady last week – we cut maybe ten inches. She looks like an African man now.

Before I came to China, when I did hair at my house, I had to do long frustrating sometimes because you can’t have both. But I guess only braiding one side of the head is the style now.

The profession most similar to hairstyling is being a taxi driver, because they also receive all kinds of people and hear all kinds of stories.

There was a Caucasian lady who adopted an African girl; she couldn’t figure out how to do her baby’s hair, and she was so happy to find us.

One woman had been wearing the same weave for almost seven months. She was so afraid and ashamed to show her hair that I had to undo her weave in a private room. She was so happy with the results that she told me she hoped our salon would be around forever and that we would never close.

I have women with coarse hair who wish they had Caucasian hair because it would be easier to brush. And I have women with silky hair who wish for coarse hair.

Have I ever tried to cut my own hair? Never, never, never. I can braid my own hair, color it, perm it, but I never, never try to cut my own hair. I like my hair! It’s like my fourth baby.

When there are no customers, my staff does my hair, and then when a customer comes, we stop. Sometimes, my hair is only half-done. The other day, I had to go home on the bus with only half of my head braided. I was scared someone would take my picture and put it on Weibo, so I hid my face the entire ride and then rushed off when it was my stop. I would never do that at home, but in China, no one knows what the hair is supposed to look like, so they think it’s a new style.

Paulma Hair Salon B153, B1/F, North Tower, Soho Shangdu, 8 Dongdaqiao Lu, Chaoyang District (5869 0841) 朝阳区朝阳区东大桥路8号院Soho尚都北塔B153

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Photo: Sui