September 11, 2006

In search of a barber shop....

Hello Desi dudes :Here is a question for Y'all !
When was the last time you walked out of a barber shop-satisfied-after your hair cut?
.....
I just thought of sharing few of my experiences in search of a barber shop.
Yesterday,on a tipoff from one of our friends about a desi barber in Little India neighborhood in NY ,I and my roommate decided to venture out to get a hair cut from him. I should say, yesterday's haircut was one of the best cuts i've ever had in this country -A desi touch !

Flashback : Its been 40+ months here, and i would have visited atleast 20+ barber shops in and around my residence - at the rate of atleast once in every two months -in search of a perfect barber that would cut MY hair as per my preferences.Ahem ! None did their job to my satisfaction until i met this desi guy yesterday !!

At some places you are most unwelcome,and the way a whitey looks at a brownie would make one very uncomfortable. Earlier, I have got some unusually zigzag cuts from these fellas :-( All you do is try to explain the way you need the hair to be cut or just point to the hair design chart -tell him to cut the hair -as in Pic 7 using a No.2 blade fitted to a hair cutting machine .He would just run that machine up and down until your hair is cut.Yeah..Thats HAIR CUT !:-O .I felt like cursing them..போங்கடா மயி....களா !

Once i went to a black barber .He commented " Yo man, i ain't know how to cut yo' straight hair". Can't expect more from him :-( .

And once to a spanish guy : I returned as a முட்டை மண்டையன் !

Once again to an Oriental/Chinese guy : He doesnot know English and I don't know Chinese ..Let what may come..தலைய குடுத்து உட்கார வேண்டியது தான் !

Finally,tracked down a South asian -a Bangladeshi guy :He could not understand my English or Hindi ,and i donot know Bangla .Yet we are Brownies..

Even I visited a posh salon where i was photographed - the figure fed into the computer and matched with various hair styles. Again NOT too good result .I ended up swiping my credit card at that salon. (And i don't use cards for small transactions !!)

Yesterday,this barber ,a Telugu guy was all ears to my requests. What more,he used Scissors and a Comb to cut the hair.And he took much time to do his work meticulously.I really loved the way the hair was cut,and it looked good on me.
May be this guy knew the business moolah : Customer's satisfaction !!He did deserve a fat tip from me:-)
We finally felt that the 20 mile trip was worth commuting , paying tolls across boroughs,and paid parking at a lot,and the time that was spent for this wholesome adventure was totally satisfying :-)

This morning, a couple of my office (female) colleagues commented :"Prabhu ,You got a nice hair cut !"

Oh Yeah ! That made my day ,and i was happy !.

8 comments:

ada-paavi!!!! said...

which is y i never cut my hair outside india

யாத்ரீகன் said...

aha.. a long post from prabhu.. i think its been quite long :-) .. enjoyed it a lot

been there for sometime, i could imagine each of your flashback moments :-)))

especially enjoyed the >>> போங்கடா மயி....களா ! <<< a lot ;-) i too have thot for moment.. டேய் என்னாங்கடா பண்ணீங்க.. :-))

>>> Yo man, i ain't know how to cut yo' straight hair<<<

this is too much :-)))

>> You got a nice hair cut <<<

adhuku apuram prabhu.. enna nadandhuchunu solavey ilayey ;-)

nsoyyyyyy !!! :-D

expertdabbler said...

yr lengthiest post in a loooong time :)

made for very interesting reading:)

female coleagues ellam impres paniyachu! aprom??anything brewing??:)

Syam said...

//When was the last time you walked out of a barber shop-satisfied-after your hair cut?//

NEVER :-)

tt_giant said...

I hate that machine cut! Only very few times, the barber has patience to use the scissors.

Good to know that you found a nice barber!

Raju said...

Same complaint from me too.. BTW, oru practical qn.. how much did he charge? Appadiye address kodutha super.. I really badly need a good barber..

Visithra said...

20 miles for a hair cut? yikes ;p hehehe but yeah getting the right person is like searching for a needle in a haystack

Unknown said...

That was so funny Prabhu- 20 miles for a haircut?? Your tamil interjections at the Chinese, spaniards' and Bangaladeshis totally cracked me up!

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