Rant & Raves

Previously I wrote about my childhood memory of Indian barber shop, how my mom converted me to a saloon visitor, and how the Indian barber shops are depeleting in numbers here.

Well, last night I decided to give Indian barber shop a try. Furthermore, its only RM10 per cut, so its very economical! But the main purpose is to re-visit these kind of Indian barber shops to rekindle with my childhood memory. (Okay, I admit, I am cheap okay? The main attraction is the RM10 per cut thing :P)

But to be honest, before I went, I was skeptical. I was worried. I mean, what if, just what if, the cut is completely out and I cannot accept it? Then I thought along the time that “the hair will grow, so if its not nice, you just need some time to re-style your hair”, so I looked up, took a deep breath and walked in.

Barber: “Dik, nak apa?” [translation: Boy, what do you want?]
ME: “Uhmm… gunting. *looked around for poster* Nak begitu macam *pointing to one of the posters*” [translation: Uhmm.. cut hair. I want like that]
Barber: “Okay.. tepi pendek?” [translation: okay, side short?]
ME: “Uhmm.. ya…”
(Just in case you haven’t noticed, my B.M is really bad)

Then he took out the big ass scissor and the comb and chopped away real quick. I mean, REAL QUICK, as if he was cutting a patch of wild grass, or as if he was in a hurry to finish me up so that he could move on to another customer. But I was the only customer there at the time.

Niamah!

Anyway, he was chopping away, clipping here and there, and I was less worried. I mean, it has been done and I cannot reverse it anymore, so whatever the outcome is, I will just have to accept it. If it is really that bad, I could always do “damage control”, meaning by cutting it shorter somewhere else, or go bald. So I closed my eyes, not wanting to see.

After a while, the clipping stopped, and it was suddenly very quiet except some Indian songs playing at the background. I opened my eyes, and I saw the barber taking out a blade. He turned to me, without saying a thing, started shaving, aka Sweetney Todd style. That’s for watching both the original version of Sweetney Todd and Johnny Depp version, the impression of throat-cutting is just too deep.

I was surprised, as I forgot about this part in Indian barber experience, and at first I was worried that the barber might suddenly transform into Sweetney Todd, less the handsomeness of Johnny Depp of course.

I calmed myself down, feeling the steel blade brushing my skin, near my vein. I guess it has really been a long freaking time since I visited any barber, so that’s why I wasn’t used to it, especially the blade part.

But the conclusion is like this; its not half bad. OK, maybe I have lowered my expectation, and of course it is not comparable to high-end saloon, but for the price and the end result, I think I might go back once in a while.