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まさか入院中に散髪してもらえるとは思ってもみなかったよ。

The character is a patient in a hospital who's having his hair cut by a nurse who was a hairdresser.

散髪する means "to have one's hair cut". To me, it looks like the nurse is cutting her hair herself and the patient is grateful for that.

Haragurodanshi
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Think of 散髪する and 髪を切る simply as "to cut (someone's or one's own) hair", but this also includes "indirectly" cutting one's own hair at a barber (using a barber is just a means of cutting hair). When an ordinary person says 散髪した, it usually means "I had a haircut (at a barber)", but it's perfectly fine to say 自分で散髪した ("I cut my hair by myself"). When a hairdresser says 彼の散髪をしました, it would mean "I cut his hair". Thus, the sentence in question is perfectly correct.

naruto
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  • (Hmm... ChatGPT says "You look different, did you cut your hair?" is a natural English sentence, but "I cut my hair at a barber" may mean something weird. Is this true? In Japanese, when you just say 髪を切った or 散髪した, who actually held the scissors is not important.) – naruto Jul 05 '23 at 02:23
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    "I got my hair cut at the barber" is more natural to me (Australian English speaker) than "I cut my hair at a barber", because the latter can only mean that you cut your own hair, in which case it should be "I cut my own hair at the barber". On the other hand, "Did you cut your hair" is natural for me, but I can't identify exactly why. – jogloran Jul 05 '23 at 04:36
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    American English: "I cut my hair" does not imply that you did the cutting yourself.

    "I cut my hair at a/the barber" works as a response to "Where do cut your hair?"; also does not imply you did the cutting yourself. Could replace with "I get my hair cut at a/the barber" with no change in meaning.

    "Where do you get your hair (noun) cut (verb)?" would expect a habitual answer. "Where did you get your haircut (noun)?" or "Where did...hair (noun) cut (verb)?" is specific to the most recent cut. "Where do you get your haircut (noun)?" is wrong; would need to be "haircuts" plural.

     – istrasci Jul 05 '23 at 06:53
  • Also in AmEn, "haircut" as a noun is primarily used by/for males. Women/females usually "cut their hair", or "get their hair cut", but rarely say "get a haircut". – istrasci Jul 05 '23 at 06:57
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    It's worth noting that in your quote it says "もらえる" which wouldn't make sense if it was someone talking about someone else's hair. – Kimbi Jul 05 '23 at 07:50
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    @istrasci - Interesting. 散髪 is also used more by/for males than by/for females. Women say カット. – aguijonazo Jul 05 '23 at 07:55
  • Thank you all, I am relieved to know that "I cut my hair at a barber" is not a totally ridiculous sentence (at least in American English) ☺ – naruto Jul 05 '23 at 09:24
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    From the UK perspective "I cut my hair at a barber" sounds really weird. It sounds like you went to the barbers, picked up a pair of scissors and cut your own hair. We would say "I got my hair cut at the barbers". Note the 's' on the end. Without the 's' it also sounds weird. – user3856370 Jul 06 '23 at 19:11
  • @user3856370 That should be a possessive, not a plural: you got your hair cut at the barber’s (or the hairdresser’s). There is a noun implied, like ‘place’ or ‘shop’. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jul 07 '23 at 11:00
  • @JanusBahsJacquet Fair point. At the time I couldn't decide whether it referred to the shop of one barber or several barbers and therefore couldn't decide where to put the apostrophe, so I left it out. Lazy! – user3856370 Jul 07 '23 at 11:19