snapping at a hair dresser because she was bombarding my family with questions about our private lives and making us feel uncomfortable?
Visited a salon with my grandmother a few days ago and we planned to both cut our hair there. My grandmother had her turn first because there were only two hair dresser aunties and one was occupied with another customer.
Some background info: I have relatively dark skin compared to my other family members because I am heavily involved in outdoor sports. Therefore I often get mistaken as my grandmother’s helper but honestly I don’t mind after all these years lol.
So unsurprisingly, the other hairdresser auntie mistook me as my grandmother’s helper and asked her if I was from Indonesia and where she hired me. My grandmother then replied that I was her granddaughter. Both the hairdresser aunties then bombarded her with many questions: Why her skin so dark? Is she from your son or daughter side? You sure she Chinese? (They conversed fully in Chinese) My grandmother, who had difficulty hearing on one ear, struggled to answer their questions one by one, and the hairdresser auntie (who was supposed to be doing my grandmother’s hair) pestered her and even tapped on her shoulder several times to get more answers out of her.
I, who was casually scrolling on my phone and minding my own business, got annoyed at the hairdressers’ questions and the way they were pestering my clearly uncomfortable grandmother. I then stood up from the waiting area and (ok ah i agree i was quite rude atp) snapped at the auntie “剪头发啦，不用问jiang多” (translate: just cut her hair la, don’t ask so many questions). The hairdresser auntie was extremely shocked and embarrassed when I snapped at her and took a while to react. My grandmother quickly responded and said to just start the haircut. As I walked back to the seats at the waiting area, the hairdresser auntie told me to not get angry and that “girls should not have such a bad temper”. The other hair dresser auntie and customer chimed in “Ya lor Ah Girl why you so rude and angry” And I got so mad LMAO. I prayed for Holy Guan Yin Ma’s powers and grace to hold my temper and I calmed myself down, ignoring what they said and opened Instagram, hoping to get myself occupied and away from their conversations.
One good thing about me is that I have very sharp hearing and good at multitasking, but its also bad because whatever the aunties were saying afterwards, I heard them clear and well. So they continued with their conversations, obviously avoiding the topic about me but occasionally adding in things to spite me. Such as saying things about how girls should always respect their elders and girls in the past will get whacked if they did anything their parents didn’t like. When the haircut was done, my grandmother asked if I wanted to do my hair as planned, but I rejected and told her that we should just leave. My grandmother did not press on further because she knew I was not in the mood for it. But of course, hair dresser auntie had to add on, “Its okay Auntie, just ignore her. Dunno why she so angry. Girls should not have bad temper.” …..ok auntie…my fault…
Firstly, I will never disrespect my grandmother in anyway, and she is my dearest family. Secondly, I admit that snapping at a stranger, or even at someone older than me is wrong, but this auntie really too much eh, why so kaypo and the questions you asked really quite rude leh… Furthermore, my grandmother was clearly placed in discomfort by your questions. I was just drawing the line clear so that the auntie will stop trying to ask more rude questions. But what made things worse was that when we reached home, my grandmother asked me “Why your temper so bad ah?”