How to get a haircut in China (and get what you asked for)

You, a barber with strong opinions, and no shared language about the single most visible part of your body. Breathe. These phrases keep your head safe.

What you'll say

Tap play to hear it. Everything on this page runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Heads-up: the voice you hear here is your browser’s built-in Mandarin — the app sounds considerably better. On iPhone it uses Apple’s enhanced and premium system voices, plays at real conversational speed, and has a slow mode for practising.

This device has no Chinese voice installed, so audio can’t play here. The app doesn’t have that problem — it uses the Mandarin voices built into iOS.

就修一下，不要剪太短。

Jiù xiū yíxià, bú yào jiǎn tài duǎn.

Just a trim — don't cut it too short.

修 (xiū) = tidy up/trim. Say it BEFORE the scissors move. There is no undo.

剪一厘米左右。

Jiǎn yī límǐ zuǒyòu.

Cut about 1 centimeters.

Numbers survive translation better than adjectives. 左右 = 'approximately'.

跟这张照片一样。

Gēn zhè zhāng zhàopiàn yíyàng.

Like this photo. (show your phone)

The universal haircut strategy. Choose the photo before sitting down, not under pressure.

1 more phrase in this situation — plus the real-speed audio for all 4, the listening drill, and the camera. Six situations are free in the app; this one is part of Pro.

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What they'll say back

This is the part nobody teaches. Real Mandarin comes back fast and blunt, so hear it at natural speed first.

Press play before you read. In the app, anything you miss comes back slower and then again later, until you catch it at full speed.

They say

两边要不要推短一点？

Liǎngbiān yào bu yào tuī duǎn yìdiǎn?

Want the sides clipped shorter?

You can answer

稍微短一点可以，别太夸张。

Shāowēi duǎn yìdiǎn kěyǐ, bié tài kuāzhāng.

A little shorter is fine — nothing dramatic.

They say

办张会员卡吧，充五百送一百。

Bàn zhāng huìyuánkǎ ba, chōng wǔbǎi sòng yìbǎi.

Get a membership card — deposit 500, get 100 free.

You can answer

不用了，我先体验一次。

Bú yòng le, wǒ xiān tǐyàn yí cì.

No thanks — let me try once first.

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