Learn Italian: Volevo i capelli corti e molto scalati. - I wanted my hair short and very layered.

This sentence uses the mitigating imperfect (imperfetto attenuativo). Italians often use the imperfect tense in places like shops or hair salons to soften a request, making it sound less demanding than voglio. It translates to something like 'I was hoping to get' or 'I would like'. While the conditional vorrei is also polite and correct, volevo is extremely common in spoken Italian for everyday requests.

Why is capelli plural when the English translation says 'hair' in the singular?

In Italian, the hair on your head is almost always treated as a plural noun, i capelli (literally 'the hairs'). If you use the singular il capello, you are talking about one single strand of hair.

Why is it just i capelli and not i miei capelli for 'my hair'?

When talking about body parts where ownership is obvious from the context, Italian drops the possessive adjective (like miei) and simply uses the definite article (i). Since you are at the salon asking for a haircut for yourself, the possessive is unnecessary.

What does scalati mean, and why does it end in -i?