THE HAIR DRESSER

 THE HAIR DRESSER

Undoubtedly, among the varied services, the most indispensable is hairdressing and the hairdresser. Over the years, the profession has received a greater sense of respect and nomenclatural sophistication. In fact, the level of sophistication is so high that, the hair- dressing place is rich-looking, by all its gadgetry, high-tech cosmetic appliances, applicators, use and throw versions of fabric and so on. Honestly, any old timer would not muster courage to visit the place even once for hair-dressing. What baffles the tradition-bound customer is the array of lights resembling those of a movie-maker studio; the inhibition of entering the premises is compounded by the fear of unfamiliar nomenclature of the services offered. Should one erroneously call for a service un-intended, problems of two different dimensions rock the head; a] what we would end up with and b] how much we may have to shell out by way of ‘service charges’. It sounds even more strong that such places would levy a high % GST for using ‘imported gadgets’, lather of  heavens and so on.  No matter how sparse is the growth on scalp for the matter ‘to be trimmed down’, the service charges would be ‘merciless’.

Instantly, the least sophisticated ‘door-service’ hairdresser of our times looks god-incarnate. All he would need from us was just plain water and a small shelter at our backyard that too for our comfortable sitting under the shade of a tree on our chair. All, the trimmed-down pieces he would scavenge upon completion of work and leave the place neat. His services were offered for a very nominal fee at our own premises. The trade has witnessed an evolution of sorts. Who ever thought it would reach a scale beyond one’s limits of imagination?

 We did have hair-dresser shops in our times; but they were more customer-friendly and never frightened even school boys whose Sunday forenoon hobby was to visit the hairdresser shop once every 3 weeks. Not that those boys were any trim-conscious. It was a ploy to browse cinema magazines, trivia and tit-bits which could be had from there. Reading such material was an offence those days especially for boys. Parents would not permit reading such material at home [in fact such magazines were unknown in any house] nor would boys and girls be allowed to listen to cine-songs. Most hair-dresser shops had such print periodicals besides a radio tuned-in to receive cine-songs from Radio- Ceylon [the then Sri Lankan Radio].Only upon completing most reading matter, the boy would submit himself for hair trimming. Post hair trimming, it was not possible to stay there for long, as more persons would trickle in. 

What of those elders then?

Most elders used to avail of the ‘domestic service‘ by the then hair dressers of the town or village. There was a near regularity for the service once- a month. It was more or a clientele. Those hair dresser personnel were well informed of such rigidities as ‘amavasya’, opening day of tamil month, Saturdays,  and such other ‘restrictions’ for hair dressing exercises. They would avoid those times and visit only when such prohibitions are not observed. Their gadgetry was quite modest; included a small cup, a razor, a couple of Scissors, a comb and a mirror of the size of a present day Android phone; all were contained in a small tin box . Those craftsmen were merciless in trimming down most growth from head and would give a clean shave to face making the client younger by at least 5 years in looks.   Some hygiene-conscious customers used to deliver a few drops of anti-septic liquids like Dettol into the cup with water and protect self from cuts. Some households used to have the services extended to all their children –each for less than a rupee or so per head. Such rapport between houses and hair dresser personnel has gone now. The service charges have hit a new high these days ranging anywhere between Rs 70 and 100 per person. So, the interval between sessions of hair dressing, gets widened too. Changes in mode of operation have not spared hair-dressing functions either.

Prof. K. Raman