The Hindu Business Line : Haircut, anybody?

Every body is taking a haircut: Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Merrill Lynch, AIG, ICICI Bank, Ranbaxy – you name it. So, I thought I’d get myself one too, before anyone forced it on me.

I’d pretty much finished getting it done when I noticed an odd looking contraption in front of the seat beside me.

A ‘steam machine’, I was told, for stewing people in their own juice, though in fact the man put it a bit differently. What he actually said was ’for steaming people’s faces after applying cream’ — many packets and brands of which I noticed positioned right next to the steam machine; with pictures of peaches and apricots (and even bananas!) on them. In a ‘gents only’ salon!

What did the cream do, after the cream gelled? Did it make your skin fairer or softer, or what? No, I was told, nothing like that, it was only for people trying to get themselves window shopped; it only made you look fresher, younger; for about three days. The cost? Rs 150 to Rs 200.

Were people willing to shell out that kind of money in back-of-beyond parts of Chennai for a treatment that lasted only three days?

Sure, I was told, about half-a-dozen a day: garbage collectors trying to hook a wife, bus conductors who were just shopping around, courier delivery boys going on a date and, at the top of the heap, street corner politicians hoping for a carefully contrived ‘chance encounter’ with the big boys.

Moral of the story? Once you get into the haircut business you never know who or what you will bump into next.

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