beijing haircut

It's never in any of the guidebooks - where to get a decent, cheap haircut and how to deal with any language or cultural barriers to getting one.
Even in New Zealand, it took a while to find a good place to get my hair cut. In Beijing it wasn't hard to find one - there's one across the street from where we were staying - but it was a bit more difficult to deal with an utter lack of English.

I needed a haircut, so I chanced it. The initial bit was easy - I walked toward the shop and a girl outside said, 'Haircut?' I nod, she leads me inside and through the salon to the back where she proceeds to give me a shampoo and head massage for 25 minutes. It was actually two of what I assume were shampoo cycles, each followed by a massage of the head and neck, then another (conditioner?) cycle, followed by not only another round of massage but also an ear-cleaning. I have never had anyone else's fingers that far into my ears, which was a bit disconcerting. I wasn't sure if this was part of the normal routine, or if she just found my ears particularly offensive.
The whole affair was quite relaxing, other than the ear bit, and then I was led over to a standard hair-cutting chair, where the same girl briefly gave me a shoulder massage.
While sitting there, I was approached by a couple of other girls. The first tried, even though I don't speak Chinese and she didn't speak more than five words of English, to sell me a frequent-user discount card. The second came over, talked for a while, saw my blank look, stopped, then brought over a menu of services. I think she was trying to sell me the optional extras (I made out senior styler), but I couldn't read the menu any more than I understood what she was saying. Thankfully, on the door it read in English 'Haircut 38 yuan' and 38 was the first bit on the list.

The actual stylist had a few phrases of English, enough so we could make ourselves understood when he asked what I wanted and I pointed to my head and made motions for the length. The cut itself turned out well, although after I assumed he was finished he spent another 15 minutes trimming individual hairs he decided weren't sufficiently conforming to the overall effect.
I was slightly distracted as this was going on, since the original washing girl wandered over. I think she was satisfied I couldn't understand what she was saying, so was talking with the stylist about this crazy Westerner. She was certainly amused by my earring, and curious about my eyelashes. Curious enough about the last bit to get me to close my eyes so she could inspect them close up.

The whole thing took more than an hour and a quarter. I ended up with a clean head and a decent haircut.
It all cost me about $5.