Innovation

A professor in college once remarked that Asia was not a continent that innovates (he cited the low number of patents held) but it was a place that improved upon existing products. To a large extent, I think this is true -- cars, cell phones and computers were all Western Hemisphere inventions but producers in Asia are now leading the industry in these sectors -- and my hair cut today is a case in point.
I hate getting my hair cut because I'm a bad impromptu conversationalist. This may be a product of my shielded upbringing in the city where my parents always told me not to talk to strangers. So I don't. Unless I'm in a cab. Or at a hairdresser. What does one say in these awkward silences of forced intimacy? I like your driving? You're really good at holding those scissors? I usually leave it to the other person to strike up a conversation which can be even more awkward at the end when I'm at my destination or I'm paying for my haircut and I realize that I have not said one word besides the address I need to be at or my hair style preference.
So back to my story about my haircut. How can haircuts be made less socially painful for shy people like me? Make them shorter -- 15 minutes short. That way, it'll only be 15 minutes of painful silence. I found a hairdresser called X-Cut at the mall and it's owned by a chi chi hairdressing chain but the selling point for their X-Cut outlet is an express cut -- a haircut in 15minutes for 15 ringgit (US$4.40). The design aesthetic of each outlet is similar to pod hotels -- the one I went to had four stations in a 12 x 12 space. By using a vending machine to sell hair cut coupons and hair products, the concept eliminates the need for a cashier thus keeping overhead costs low. And with only one type of service offered (a hair cut, no manicures, or waxing, or massages), service is brisk. My favorite part of the experience is the neon orange traffic jackets each hairdresser wears to dress like pit stop attendants on an F1 track.