At the hairdressers

I have been to the hairdressers finally, to have a trim.
This is the first visit to the hairdressers in Italy for me - I have been going either in Hong Kong when I go back, or in London if I am there on business. But I could not put it off any longer, so I asked around for tips from the gals at work.
Saturday morning saw me along the Lungarno (the street that runs along the river bank) at Ciro's hair salon.
I walked in and Ciro, in his black turtleneck looked me up and down with disdain.
"And who sent you?" he asked
"Alessia" I replied, forgetting the surname of my colleague in my discomfort at his withering glances, at me in general, not just the hair.
He smiled for a second.
"Ah, Alessia Antinori?" (The Antinoris, of wine fame, are Florentine royalty).
"Errr, no" I replied, giving him instead the name of my colleague and telling him the name of the company I work for. It clearly did not leave him inspired.
At this he whisked me into the middle of the salon, and started pawing disparagingly at my locks, which were unwashed for 2 days so that I could maximise the return on my hairdresser expenditure.
"LOOK!" he shrieked in Italian.
At which all of the women in the place turned slowly in my direction, to do as he suggested.
"These Americans, their hair is SO CLEAN!" he yelled. The other clients nodded knowingly at each other. "They get up every morning and think to themselves, I have to get in a hot shower immediately and wash my hair. Terrible!"
All the ladies seemed in agreement with this too.
I cleared my throat and said
"Errrrm, but I am English, not American. And actually for 2 days...."
"ENOUGH: we can't wash your hair, its too clean. We will just wet it. Go." And that was that discussion over with.
Some time later I left the salon with my new haircut (essentially the same, but a little shorter) and went to have a glass of wine to recover!