Man From Matunga

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March 31, 2006

Hair comes the salon revolution

This was published in today's Mumbai Mirror.

This is one thing I find difficult to understand. We all need hair-cuts, which we get done at regular intervals …anywhere from once in 2-3 weeks to once in 2-3 months, depending on our sex, amount of hair and need. Which means that the number of people getting their hair cut in a day is reasonably fixed and would increase only with an increase in the population.

Uptil three years ago, King’s Circle had two saloons, Capitol and Star, both for men, with a couple of more saloons near the Market and on Bhaudaji road and a couple more for women. Most women mGSBs (Matunga Gujaratis aspiring to be South Bombayites), however used to go outside Matunga for their “parlor” needs.

As a kid, I, I used to frequent a parlor in Brahmanwada. I stopped going when one day the “barber” found it more interesting to watch an ongoing Amitabh movie on cable than the state of my hair and gave me a nick on my ear-lobe. I then moved to Star, which has always been a popular, no-frills saloon and does a better-than-average job at cutting hair, but stopped going there, when I found it more convenient to get my hair-jobs done near my place of work.

And then suddenly about two years ago, started the saloon revolution. Enrich first opened on the Circle, followed by Aakruti, which along with Naturals (the ice-cream parlor) has erased all signs of the late Dr. U B Rao’s clinic. And then just last week, I saw another new fancy saloon next to Foto Circle.

So I come back to the original question. What is the reason for this sudden spurt in the number of saloons in Matunga? Is it that 20 somethings and teens are getting their hair done more often than when we were their age? Or is it because mGSBs have stopped going out of Matunga for their hair-related issues and are now patronizing these new places? Or is it because more and more boys and men have started getting facials, manicures and pedicures done…sheesh!

Yet, with all these “glam” saloons taking over Matunga hair-dos, the road-side barber with his “istra”, still flourishes outside Aurora with a reasonable clientele of taxi-drivers and household help, offerring his services at an unbeatable price.

In the midst of this “saloon” awakening, what has quietly gone unnoticed is another revolution. In drearily conservative and boring Matunga, where all shops now sell egg-less pastries and cakes with eggs are amazingly difficult to find, where women would always go to “women” parlors, at special times, out-of-sight of men or behind curtains, we now suddenly have unisex saloons, and no one seems to be raising even a third of an eyebrow.

A few months ago, a nephew of mine from abroad, wanted a special type of hair-cut. When we asked around, we were told of a “designer” hair-dresser between Matunga and Dadar. When we called him, his receptionist said that the earliest appointment would be after 4 days. Four days? For a hair-cut? Honestly? He quietly went to Star and they managed to do what he wanted them to do, within the hour, at probably one-fourth the price. Some things in life (and hair-cuts fall in this category) are definitely not worth waiting for!

Posted by bhavinj at March 31, 2006 06:22 PM

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