I have a strange fetish - a hair cut. I usually get it done every third or fourth week and I particularly enjoy it. I find the experience therapeutic, a blissful time. I feel very relaxed when I am on barber’s chair, almost like when I jog, absolutely relieved of all stress. It is my personal time, with no intrusion. In the end, shedding just a few grams of hair makes me feel so light. Such is my love for this time that I almost plan it - almost always a Saturday morning, because there is no rush then; working around my gym/activity time; deciding on the mode of transportation, of which I have used many - walking, jogging, cycling, driving, public transport. And there are times when I carry my other weekend relaxant - a newspaper, to read while waiting for my turn. All very simple, very soothing.
But the part integral to making this experience soothing is the barber. And I stick to one barber. Whenever I have had to change the barber shop, I have tried to stick to one barber in the shop. This gives me comfort of the knowledge that he knows what he is doing, how I want my hair to be cut. So I can sit relaxed. As I said, important to making the whole experience blissful. My barber for the last decade has been Ashok. It has helped my cause that he has been the most stable barber in the shop, among the usual inflows and exits. I do not talk much, and have gathered little information about him - primarily where he is hails from, and members of his family. And he too is usually reticent - speaks only when spoken to. But he is not glum, I see him joking with others many times, just that he maintains a kind of professional, dignified distance with a customer. In fact he is the most stable head in the shop, mature, maintaining decorum, reining in the excitable, brattish barbers when needed. All in all, a very calming presence, which suits me well.
During one haircut session I had a really interesting, rather enlightening, experience. I was waiting for my turn with Ashok. The guy before me, in green T, or the GT guy, was the typical prototype one finds in salons/barber shop these days. For such people, after a lot of focus on the head hair - inch-perfect height, specific undulations, the waves, the front twirl - one moves to the facial hair. This has to be tended delicately - cut the growth near the mouth and near the throat, and carefully trim what is between. After this is done, the GT guy points to his forearms while talking to Ashok. Ashok says something about coming some other day and the GT guy takes down his mobile number, tries to fix up a time, inquires about the price - he seems very particular about getting it done. He leaves and I take the place at the chair. Conversation with Ashok follows-
‘What did that guy want?’
‘Oh that! He wanted to be waxed’
‘Oh ok. Is it very common? Guys wanting to be waxed?’
‘Yes it is. Very common among gym going men’
‘Hmm. Is it just arms and legs or something else also?’
‘Oh everything. Back, chest also’
‘Ok. Strange how things have turned around. Earlier men used to have clean shaven face and did not bother about body hair (in fact I think there was a time, probably in 1980’s, when men used to flaunt chest hair, keeping top buttons of the shirt open). But now it is the other way round, less body hair and more on face.’
‘Yes it is.’
‘In fact that guy did not have too much hair on his forearms to be waxed.’
‘Yes. But gym guys..’
At this point I am thinking that Ashok is a capable barber - he can wax also. Now this shop is not a fancy salon where all barbers (I think they use the term hair stylist now) are in uniform, a place with more comfortable, spacy seating, where fancy procedures are undertaken - a hair-cut is usually just the start of a series of treatments. This shop is a comfortable barber shop, primarily focusing on the basic men requirement of a hair-cut, and a shave, which it does efficiently, without any fuss, and at low cost. At the same time, the shop is capable of doing fancier stuff to some extent - facial, face massage, pedicure, hair coloring, and now I know, even waxing.
So, I am thinking, Ashok has some basic functional knowledge of these fancy procedures. And my MBA mind thinks, he has been here for so many years. Doesn’t he think of moving to a better place. He would definitely earn better. There must be this ladder in the barber industry also where you move from a basic barber shop to a salon, then to a bigger salon, and so on. Why doesn’t Ashok try it? Infact, what about other barbers here? Then I say to myself, just like in the corporate world, they too may have the inertia I am so familiar with. The comfort factor of this place which is so informal, not too competitive, barbers are more friends than rivals, and most customers are acquaintances. There is no attempt to hard sell a fancy treatment. Yeah, that should explain. Ashok is content here, just like I am in my job. Not everybody is always looking for the next raise. Ambition is not a virtue everywhere. I was not making a negative judgement because I am myself very much like this, but it was a wry, defeatist feeling. Nevertheless, I probe Ashok -
‘This place across the road, Flicks & Cuts, that is more like a salon, right?’
‘Yeah, but they mostly do stuff for women’
‘Hmm.. and a hair cut there would be very expensive, say Rs. 150’
He makes some sound, but does not say anything. And I sense he is getting a bit cagey about saying anything about the place. It seems to me that he is worried that I may be thinking of trying that place and he does not want to discuss it. I was a bit surprised by this. I did not think Ashok would care that much.
After thinking for some time, I eventually ask him - ‘Haven’t you ever thought of moving to a bigger salon?’.
He replied ‘Oh, but I have bought this place now. I would be running it from 1st next month’.
And thus the penny dropped.
After that I probe him further just to be convinced that he actually owns this place - he has bought the shop in partnership with another barber here (apparently), from the existing owner (whom, I have observed, comes only in the evening and is usually busy in his numerous other enterprises), he would pay rent for the place, some renovation would be done in terms of new chairs, new dressing tables etc., he may have to think about revising the pricing, and yes, he would continue as a barber (what a relief!).
And so, I was humbled by humility and nonchalance.
PS - all these years, I have maintained the habit of tipping Ashok ten rupees at the end of a hair-cut. Today, I am thinking, should I still do it? He is the owner! Does one tip the owner? Eventually I did, would not do from the 1st of next month yet.
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