The Haircut chronicles

I just spent 120 bucks on a haircut and it's not the first time I have done that. After all I belong to a middle class family and although I enjoy the luxury of GATE scholarships as my other friends and love spending the money which I think is much- much more than what anybody deserves for clearing an easy exam and spending negligible time per week on TAship, however spending 120 bucks on somebody giving 20 minutes with scissors on my hair is definitely not worth it, especially when anyway, anyhow I get a haircut from anywhere, I will find my friends laughing at me on my face the next day.

The reason why I am forced to get a 120 haircut is not because I dont have a choice. I do have a choice, but the choice is between a Rs 20 ber sarai nukkar nai and the 120 hair cut shop. Now the problem with Rs 20 haircut is that the guy knows just one hair cut style and he will make your head appear as if you are wearing a helmet; and the day I would like to appear as if I am wearing a helmet, I will get a real helmet. There must be other shops too, but I am too lazy to find one. But still, 120 is too much yaar, even though I get a air conditioned room, a nice chair to sit and some occasional chicks to watch. You can get a meal in Mc Donald's for less than that, added to which you do get a air conditioned room to eat there, you get a good chair to sit and you do get to see more chicks and you know what else, when you are done eating, nobody would come to you and ask you to pay and get lost (the guy at the hair cut shop won't allow me to stay a minute longer)

Just think of the logic behind haircut. A particular species one fine day found out that it had dense black thread like material growing at the top of its head. Now that species was intelligent enough to observe that although it had the same thread like material growing all over its body at various places, however at most of the places it could either be covered with robes or grew at a slower rate except the head where it just went on and on and hence it decided to take care of this thing. Although I am sure that this consciousness came a bit late in the species as you don't see early man pictures with haircuts.

What makes me wonder is that whether it was looks or inconvenience that made men start getting a haircut. Socrates used to get one, if you see his pictures, although he kept his beard. Alexander, Ceaser all got haircuts. Also if you see pictures of people in civilized Europe in that era, they were all keeping their hair short, hence maybe at that time short haircut became a symbol of masculinity. There was a clear demarcation; long hair: women, short hair: men. Whereas in India, men in ancient times were still comfortable with long hair. Pictures of Buddha, Shiva, Chandragupta Maurya and even chola kings show that they all kept relatively long hair that perhaps did not require any professional hair cutting. Perhaps the first hair style revolution in India might have been brought by the British which all seemed to have the same 'left parted' hair style. This era also marked the 'minima' of average hair length of Indian youth as after that we were overtaken by the hippie culture and the hair lengths suddenly started growing again. After that we were taken over completely by bollywood with Amitabh Bachchan of Zaanzeer, Sanjay Dutt of Rocky or Amir Khan of Ghajini deciding our hairstyle.

Maybe a hair cut is more than trimming of an unrequired body material growing out of our skull. It serves the purpose of posing ones identity. You can represent that you are neat, shabby, gay (kidding!), geeky, stylish, inspired, don't care, artistic with your hair style. How much you spend on your hair also represents your lifestyle and lifechoices (which btw is quite the opposite in my case, where it is a function of my laziness and narrow pool of database). Hairstyles have a glorious history where celebrities and world leaders have given people courage to try something different. And supposedly it is these hair styles that have promoted the nukkad naees to the post of har stylist and made them rob people of money.

I in particular find these hairstyles vary confusing and I am proud to confront that I am one of those that preferring playing safe. Getting a hair style changed is a risky affair. You dont know how you are going to look after the cut and its not like if you are not satisfied, the 'hair stylist' can paste your hair back. So for the next fortnight or more you are stuck with the dumb look. Hence I generally prefer getting a haircut at home when not in Delhi. My naee knows me for last eight years and he knows what hairstyle suits me and hence the whole procedure is a 'no questions' asked affair. I come, I sit & I go and its done, with nobody asking me whether I would like short or long hair, whether I would like parted or blunt etc.

So you see, history, celebrities and cultures might have influenced hair cuts but in my case it is sheer laziness, unbotheration and freedom of not being asked to take decisions. Maybe I would give this world a new reason for deciding hair cuts and barber shops. Maybe this blog would prove a milestone in the history of hair cuts. Maybe.