Speaking Portuguese
How to say the haircut is going wrong, in Portuguese
If you are in the chair right now
Desculpa, ficou um pouco mais curto do que eu queria.
Sorry, it's turned out a bit shorter than I wanted.
If that gets brushed off
Não é bem o que eu tinha em mente. Dá para ajustar o resto?
It's not quite what I had in mind. Can the rest be adjusted?
«Ficou» — it ended up that way — is the whole trick: the outcome takes the blame and nobody has to have caused it. Say it while there is still hair to work with, and keep «dá para…?» close — Brazil's all-purpose «is it possible?».
There is no chapter for this. Phrasebooks teach you to ask for a trim, then abandon you a third of the way through, when it is already shorter than you wanted and the person holding the scissors is pleased with herself. Brazilian Portuguese happens to be superbly equipped for exactly this conversation.
If you need more than one line
softest
Posso te falar uma coisa?
Can I tell you something? Buys you a beat before the difficult part.
neutral
Eu queria deixar mais comprido aqui.
I wanted to leave it longer here. The imperfeito — queria — states the original wish without making anyone wrong.
neutral
Pode deixar as laterais um pouquinho mais compridas?
Can you leave the sides a tiny bit longer? The -inho does the softening.
firmest
Dá para consertar?
Can it be fixed? Impersonal dá para — nobody has to be at fault.
Two things worth knowing
You already know «curto». That is not the problem.
Ficar carries the bad news
Brazilian Portuguese loves ficar for outcomes: «ficou curto» — it came out short, all by itself, agent unknown. It is the same instinct as English «it turned out», but Brazilians reach for it constantly and especially here, where the alternative — «você cortou demais», you cut too much — makes an enemy of someone mid-job. Let ficar hold the blame; it doesn't mind.
The diminutive is a tone, not a size
«Um pouquinho mais comprido» does not mean a smaller amount than «um pouco» — it means the same request said warmly. The -inho is Brazil's politeness particle, glued onto everything from cafezinho to momentinho, and complaints wear it best of all. Leaving it out is a good part of why textbook Portuguese sounds abrupt to Brazilian ears.
What Isabela actually said
What you have to get done
- Say softly that it isn't what you imagined
- Explain what you truly desired
- Decide together what should happen with the rest
Isabela
How is it coming out so far?
You
Look, to be honest, it isn't coming out the way I'd imagined — I think we're heading in a different direction from what I wanted.
Isabela
Oh, I'm sorry; let's adjust it carefully — what did you have in mind for the cut?
You
I think I wanted something shorter at the sides, but without taking so much length off the top; since we're still at the start, can we correct in that direction?
Isabela
Yes, it can be corrected: I'll shorten the sides and keep the length on top; that gets it closer to what you imagined.
You
Perfect, exactly that direction — and for the rest, keep the sides quite short, but take it off little by little so we can check the balance before going on.
Isabela
Agreed — I'll take it off gradually and check the balance; let's finish carefully.
The whole conversation, unedited
A real run in the app, nothing scripted on Isabela's side. The transcript above is taken from this recording, and the objectives tick off on screen as they are met.
Turn sound on to hear it.
Now say it yourself
Reading that is not the same as producing it with someone waiting, which is the entire difficulty. You can have this exact conversation in the app: Isabela is a third of the way through, and you have three things to get done.
It is free, it takes about a minute to start, and the first attempt is allowed to be terrible.
Practise this conversation
