People may be fine to order at a restaurant in Swedish, talk to shop assistants in Swedish and even ask about transport times at the train station, but when it comes to getting a haircut, there’s just something particularly nerve wracking about it and many opt for the services of an English-speaking hairdresser instead.
We get it, it can be daunting to put your looks in the hands of someone who might not understand you properly, or you might end up inadvertently say yes to a style or a cut that you absolutely didn’t want, but with a few pointers and brushing up on your vocab first, you’ll soon learn that it’s not that scary at all.
Many hairdressers in Sweden will be quite good at English, but it's always good to know how to describe what you want in Swedish too so you know you're both on the same page.
Before the appointment
The name for a hair salon is Swedish is frisör, or frisörsalong.
When you’ve found a frisör you like, it’s best to make an appointment or boka en tid. This might also be called a klipptid ('cut time'). You could either do this online through the hairdresser's own website or using a service like bokadirekt.se, where you can compare prices and read reviews.
Some hairdressers may offer a walk-in appointment, in which case this will be helpfully advertised as drop in. If you only see tidsbeställning, then that means you'll need to book first.
Either way, it can be a good idea to pop into the salon you've got your eye on and ask if they have any English-speaking hairdressers you can book with. This can be especially useful if you have hair which is unusual in Sweden, such as particularly thick or textured hair, as the salon should be able to match you to someone with the right skills.
As with haircuts anywhere, it's important that you go in with an idea of what you want, so you can communicate it successfully. Looking for a photo of a particular style you want recreated can be very helpful too, particularly if you don’t know how to describe it in Swedish.
At the appointment
When you arrive or when you make the appointment, you'll likely be asked what type of package you want. This will typically be a combination of klippning (cut), tvätt (wash) and styling or föning (styling or a blow dry).
You may also want to add colour (färg) to your hair. Färgning is the general term for getting your hair coloured, while you can also bleach (bleka) your hair or get highlights (slingor/slingning).
When you’re ready, your hairdresser or frisör will ask you how much you want cutting off, which might be in decimeter (decimetres, or 10 centimetres). If you just want them to cut off your split ends, you can say bara topparna (just the tops).
You can also ask them to add in some etager (layers) to your hair. This will give it more volume (volym) or show off the texture in your hair, if you have this type of hair. You may also want to cut in a lugg (fringe or bangs if you’re from the US).
Like most salons around the world, the next step will be the dying process if you’re getting your hair coloured, if not, it will time for styling or just simply drying, whatever you choose.
Styling
As mentioned above, styling is the same in Swedish and English, so that shouldn't be much of a language barrier.
Typically, you’ll choose if you want your hair styled rakt (straight) or lockigt (curly) if it’s adaptable to your kind of hair. Be aware that rakt means 'straight', while rakad means 'shaved', so be careful of your choice of words here so you don't end up bald.
Your hairdresser will typically use a plattång (hair straightener) or locktång (curler) here.
Top tips:
- Show the type of style or cut you want with your hands if you don’t know the words, or better still find a photo on your phone.
- If you don’t understand what the hairdresser is asking you, get them to repeat or explain in another way, don’t just agree without knowing what you’re agreeing to and remember you can always ask them to type in their question to Google translate or similar.
- If you don’t like something or you see the hairdresser doing something that you didn’t want, don’t be afraid to speak up and let them know.
Finally, you’re not obliged to tip (dricksa in Swedish) for services such as getting your hair done. It’s perfectly acceptable not to add any and quite common (especially as haircuts are already quite expensive in Sweden).
In many cases you'll be paying by card anyway and it's by no means certain that the hairdresser will accept cash, so you might not be able to tip even if you want to.
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