By Manoj Pande
Alok Joshi’s fascinating experiments with haircuts (Garhwal Post, May 10th, 2024) had me weaving my fingers across my scalp, only to realise that I too needed one ASAP.
So ventured out I did to a nearby saloon – a different one this time. Gone are the days when one had a specific preference not only for the saloon, but also for the barber, as one really cared about one’s hairstyle. As years have gone by, so have the hair of many friends who are now either bald or left with a paltry set of hair on their pate. It is small mercy then that one still has a healthy growth- so what if the hairs have greyed considerably. After all, one must look senior enough!
Off with your turbans and caps – rich or poor, young or old, big shot or small fry. Bow before him we all must – it is heads down in the barber shop, call it with whatever fancy name you may like. Be it a saloon, salon or shop, the basic functions remain the same – snip, comb, snip with the mandatory ‘back view’ of the neck after the task has been done.
And talking of shops and chairs, what pray is an ‘Italian Barber’??
The roadside barber who performs the job with his client sitting on the ground on the bricks or ‘eenta’, as you say in Hindi!
I waited for my turn, which came soon enough. I sat down on the chair facing the mirror and took off my spectacles. My shirt collar was tucked in, a clean sheet was placed over my upper half and tightened at the neck. As the hairstylist went to fetch the scissors and the comb, I looked around. In the adjacent chair was a young man with today’s popular hairstyle getting his beard trimmed. The youngsters waiting for their turn too had beards, as did my barber.
This was my moment of epiphany. The beard has taken over the youth…
As the activity snipping hair all over continued, my thoughts ventured further on my latest eureka moment. The Indian Cricket team – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shami, Bumrah, Pant, Rahul, Pandya et al – almost everyone has a beard. My barber too had one. Nearer home, my son keeps a beard, as do most of his friends and youngsters in the family.
Once upon a time, the ads featured cricket stars like Kapil Dev plugging a shaving cream – “Palmolive da jawaab nahin” and Sunil Gavaskar gently sliding his razor over his cheeks plugging a brand of blades “as smooth as Sunil Gavaskar’s cover drive”. That the beard was an aberration was clear from an ad for a shaving cream that showed an interviewer carrying a mike asking a person why he used that brand. “Great fragrance, wife loves it,” he replies. The interviewer then moved on and repeats the same question to someone with his back towards him. Surprise! This one turns around and lovingly fondling his beard asks “ME?”
Remember these ads? You are then of my vintage. Recall those college days which were those of fascination with socialism and communism. They were the heady days of the Soviet Union. And what pray, was the trademark Commie look? Khadi Kurta (crumpled), Jhola, Chappals and … a beard that too unkempt. How times have changed today. It is rare to see any Communist Party leader today who keeps a beard.
Sometimes I feel envious of those who maintain a beard. No hassle of a daily shave, where like a painter one first moves the brush from one cheek to another with an occasional visit to the neck. And then with all the dexterity of a surgeon, contorting the face in various shapes, running the razor slowly over the foam. And at the end of it all, dabbing water cologne or aftershave, unsatisfied at the final result.
And this brings me to the blade story. What began as an ‘ustra’ or a single blade became a twin edged weapon and has grown to multiple blade razors each more costly than the other. Each promising a smoother and better shave. Surprisingly, this industry is almost the monopoly of a single company. The Malhotras who were the leaders of the Indian blade industry, are nowhere in the picture. Where are Erasmic or Topaz now? They have either disappeared or gobbled up by this multinational, whose share price continues to rise.
Besides time and money, are we also not consuming too much water in our daily shaving routine? And what about the razors- the disposable ones, the use and throw types which are discarded adding more waste to the environment. I feel shaving is not exactly an environment friendly act in that sense, yet we can do little about it unless we too opt for a beard. Which I know I shall never do!
So, are today’s beard flaunting youth true nationalists and environment lovers? Or, is it all about fashion that makes each one look like a clone of the other?
My chain of thoughts gets a sudden jolt, “haircut complete, would sir like a head massage?”, asks my hair stylist nee barber. Of course, I did get the head massage with copious amounts of oil. As the scalp was rubbed, shaken and massaged, my mind went off on another spin, this time on an empty head with eyes closed. Relaxing, to say the least.
(An ex-Railway officer, Manoj Pande now lives in Dehradun)
