how do you say "touch up my roots and take a little off the top" in Dutch?

It's a mute point, at this stage though, as when I needed them, the words just weren't there. Perhaps I shall explain.

Thought I would treat myself to a nice little root touch-up (to avoid looking like PWT any further) and hair trim at the very lovely Aveda salon here in The Hague. I arrived to find that my stylist of the day, Fatima, was fluent in Dutch and Spanish (Yo quiero ir de compras, pero no puedo, yo tengo que estudiar!!) but unfortuntately not in English. I sat down, explicitly explained how I wanted my roots to be blonde to match the rest of my hair and a VERY slight trim around the edges, to make the points just a smidge pointier. The next words that come out of her mouth are "so what for the colour" . DANGER WILL ROBINSON *arms flail arms flail*. So I tried again.

And off we were to the "colouring station" where the owner/operator of the salon, a very small Japanese man mildly resembling Siegfried Fischbacher (of Siegfried and Roy fame), if that's at all possible. with hair styling degrees from Paris and Hong Kong and a Swedish last name pranced over to oversee the colour selection. Well, apparently there was a vast misunderstanding and instead of making my roots the same colour as my hair she made my hair the same colour as my roots. AND was WAY too scissor-snippy happy for my liking - have lost some "behind the ear" wisps that I had grown rather fond of. Points are still all systems go, thankfully.

However, the colour is kind of growing on me. It's a rich but light brown akin to that of a good carrot cake. Mmmmcarrot cake.....cream cheese icing....argh craving massive amounts of junk food today.

All in all it was a great afternoon though and even stopped for lunch at Dudok, a cafe crammed with ExPats that I consider my replacement Stella's. Not NEARLY as good (in food, service, OR atmosphere....Lord HELP me find a fruit parfait and Garden Buger in this country) but they do make a mean salad with roasted chicken, pine nuts and pesto. And their apple pie is reputably the best in the city, although have yet to partake.

Tonight was lacking in socialities but work needed to be done, and that was that. Tomorrow night however it off to Leiden to converge with two of the funniest people I know. Looking forward to rockin' time!