Sunday, June 21, 2009

Haircut, anyone?

Chennai does have its fair share of high end hair stylists, but the city obviously has enough population to keep a large number of 'hair dressing saloons' in business. Many of these saloons have upgraded themselves - they're air-conditioned, have a variety of scissors (that's big deal, considering most of them used to have just a blunt shear to hack at my schoolboy hair) and offer you full-service; hair colouring to pedicure with all kinds of beautification in between.

I'm old enough to have seen - yet, young enough to have not used :) - the itinerant barbers stropping their razors under trees by the roadsides of suburban Madras. They too, offered full service, with a 'head-massage' rounding off the shave and a haircut that most customers desired. Now, here's a shop that stays true to its roadside heritage - there is no door, just 3 walls blocking off a space by the pavement. The plastic chairs for waiting customers are on the pavement itself, as is the asbestos sunshade over them. All you have to do is to step off the pavement, and plonk right into the barber's chair!


3 comments:

chorinchath said...

Every saloon wants state-of-the-art equipments to suit the globalisation ! Having travelled in many parts of India,one thing I have observed in common is most of the men working in the saloons entertain us with their lengthy talks depending on mood/personality of the customers-topics ranging from party politics to climate changes !

Lowell said...

Which do you prefer...this one that is pictured or the new air-conditioned salons? Does this shop give a good haircut?

Shantaram said...

@ Narayanan: Talk about having a captive audience!

@ Jacob: I don't know about this one - I've been going to the same place for the past 30 years or so.. as for the quality of the haircuts - I'm sure you've heard that one about the difference between a good haircut and a bad one being just a week!